The Bulwark recently had a report which–once again–made me want to beat my head against the closest wall. Evidently, there is no end to either the viciousness or the inventiveness of those trying to make life more miserable for the poor and disabled.
The title says that MAGA folks have a “Eugenics Gene,” and the subtitle (accurately) notes that “Trump’s movement is repulsed by people who are different.” The article reminds us of the ample evidence supporting that conclusion:
There’s the frequently replayed video of Trump mocking a disabled reporter. There’s his equally well-documented distaste for disabled or disfigured soldiers; the MAGA movement’s focus on racial purity (advocating for “heritage Americans,” warning about “vermin” infesting the country, voicing concerns about groups of people who are “poisoning the blood” of the nation with their “bad genes.”); MAGA’s obsession with erasing public acknowledgment that trans people exist; its view of autism as an “epidemic” to be stamped out…
And while everyone is paying attention to the big-ticket stuff—the Iran war, the looming bond-market crisis, the Putinesque levels of corruption—the administration has been quietly doing some soft eugenics.
Many severely disabled Americans get what’s called a Supplemental Security Income. This is a benefit designed to help sustain people who will never be able to support themselves.
The money from SSI is not enough to live on. Which is why many of those who receive it live with their families as adults.
ProPublica reports that the Trump administration is working on a rule change that would deduct the “value” of the SSI recipient’s bedroom from monthly support they receive.
Think about that for a moment. Imagine that you are part of a poor family, barely making it from paycheck to paycheck, and to make matters more difficult, you have an adult disabled son still living with you. He lives with you because he can’t manage living on his own. Perhaps he won’t brush his teeth or shower regularly unless someone reminds him. Perhaps he’s unable to walk unaided, or at all–whatever barriers to normalcy are erected by his particular disability make him unemployable and preclude independence. Your paycheck has to stretch a bit more to cover his necessities, but he’s your child.
And suddenly, the government that has been sending him a monthly stipend –a stipend that doesn’t cover his costs but does help with the groceries–says it is going to deduct the “fair market value” of his bedroom from that stipend.
ProPublica has explained how this will hit poor families.
[U]nder a long-standing federal policy that was updated during the Biden administration, if a household has already demonstrated its poverty via SNAP or other public assistance programs’ own extensive income-reporting requirements, then the family is officially deemed unable to financially support a disabled loved one living at home. (The typical SNAP household that is also supporting a person who receives SSI has an annual total income of just $17,000, according to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.)
The Trump rule will undo this approach. It won’t matter if the SNAP program has already determined a family is poor enough to receive aid; anyone living at home beyond age 18 without paying full rent will be treated as if they have a benefactor. The value of their bedroom as well as any income and assets their family may have will be calculated and recalculated as often as every month and deducted from their SSI check…
If enacted, the change will require intellectually disabled young people . . . as well as very elderly people to file extensive monthly reports if they want to continue their benefits even at the reduced level. They’ll have to provide details about the property where they live: whether it’s leased or owned, as well as the names of anyone in the home, and whether any of these people has any new income or assets. They’ll also have to include documentation of all household bills and expenses, showing how much they do or don’t contribute personally, as well as financial documents such as bank statements and any pay stubs.
Are you still imagining yourself as a member of that family? How would you handle that monthly requirement?
The bureaucracy to process the monumentally-increased paperwork will be expensive, but MAGA thinks it’s worth it in order to make the lives of severely disabled people more miserable and difficult. As the article puts it, the Trump administration wants to make it harder for families to care for their disabled children because they are disgusted by their very existence. They want to go back to a world in which such people are sent away.
These people are monsters.
Yes. Monsters. 24/7/365. The cruelty is the point. Now, think about the idiots who voted for them. They are the accomplices who gave in to their own hatefulness and cruelty. Then, of course, there were the 82+ million voters who didn’t show up to negate the monsters.
And these monsters are out and proud. Miller, Homan, Bondi, et.al. Their inherent monstrosities have been given license by the worst human this country ever produced. As time goes on and the Trump train of horror continues toward the cliff of societal collapse, the orange monster is still drooling and snoozing and lying and being what he’s always been.
And the voters … Red hats still dominate certain parts of this country. Southern state legislatures are trying to maintain power no matter what. Why would they make it a point to disenfranchise black voters? Oh. Right. Because their cult leader, the head monster told them to.
Now, let’s all try to find something positive to say about the current state of our state.
Nazi Germany skipped over community / government help for the disabled and moved right onto eliminating the burdensome by murdering them. Before the “final solution to the Jewish problem” they honed their killing skills by euthanizing the mentally and physically handicapped people in their midst by the thousands. Our Republican government has found a “cleaner” way of getting those same results… just let them starve.
Sadly, this seems the only place where such horrors are reported. I have seen no national news stories on CBS/ABC/NBC .
Gonna have to deduct a LOT of pennies for those bedrooms to cover the billions – now estimated to be *trillions* – being wasted in Iran, and his endless golf trips, etc. (I could go on with examples, but we all know the grift is never-ending.) Not to mention the cost just to pay staff to manage this un-American discrimination? While Rome burns, right? Ugh. I just can’t with these nasty people…
They are abusing the civil and human rights provided for all Americans in the Constitution and ignoring by refusing to perform the duties and responsibilities required of them in their elected positions. Their aim is to repeal the Constitution in total before 2028; will they maintain their known entity of Trump or seek a less obvious ignoramus as their leader? Their money can’t buy love but it has bought this government using the good intentions of the Founding Fathers who didn’t themselves apply all civil and human rights to all citizens, primarily the slaves and indentured servants whose lives they with purchased to serve them. We as citizens are now in the position of those indentured servants; serving and paying for the right to serve, the needs of the wealthy who own the governing body today.
Has it turned out that the Constitutions, Federal and State, are Catch-22 situations providing no authority to force upholding Oaths of Office by all elected officials at all levels? The three primary branches of our government, as established by those Founding Fathers, didn’t provide a way to prevent or a way out of our current situation anymore than Trump has provided a way out of his personal war on Iran.
These people are blatant criminals and in the process of destroying the body of government, including sales and demolition of government properties, sanctioned arrests and killing on our streets by ICE and Border Patrol while ordering local public safety officers to protect them as they break laws and adding our own military to work against us. The president is a convicted felon and rapist as well as decades of tax evasion and the drunks in high places are making decisions resulting in rising body counts, now globally including 168 schoolgirls in Iran.
I won’t state here what my personal solution to all of this is for obvious reasons of electronic hacking and scamming in this electronic age forced on us to get through our day-to-day lives which used to be simple and didn’t escalate our power bills monthly and the price at the pumps drain on world economy as well as here at home. I would be opening myself to arrest and deportation.
As your article continued, I thought of Stephen Miller and the Project 25 memoranda on eliminating Supplemental Social Security.
I assume the POTUS needs to reduce spending so that he can force the people to pay for the Epstein/Trump Ballroom. I guess all his Billionaire donor buddies decided that they shouldn’t pay for it when Sleepy Don has access to the Treasury.
I am sure that the Ghoulish Stephen Miller attends a weekly Eugenics class to hone his skills.
p.s. Just a reminder that Jeffrey Epstein practiced Eugenics and other gene manipulations at his New Mexico ranch. He also experimented on children at the Ranch. Still, the FBI has not scanned the property with cadaver dogs and other such investigative devices. And remember, Epstein called Trump, “Evil.”
The goal appears to be to render them homeless and criminalize homelessness so that these people can simply be warehoused in their new, big, beautiful prisons and forgotten.
All to make the wealthiest even more so.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-social-security-ssi-disability-benefits-cuts-parents-children
I have asked myself this question since I was a little child. When my Dad had to explain to me that all people did not find value in the same things that we did, I had to conclude that they were missing something. Because an inability to empathize with others means they actually lack survival skills. As a parent, I actively instructed my children in this. MAGA and all their ilk lack the, ‘it could be me’ brain connection. And that makes it easy to justify ANY horrible thing they think up.
The “Snake Pit” was released in 1949. That movie caused changes to our asylum systems. It’s another edition of, “Americans are incapable of learning the lessons of history.” It’s something we’ve experienced far too often during 47’s relatively short tenure. For those who thought that the MAGATS only wanted to go back to the fifties, here’s proof that the destination is much farther back than you thought.
When you inner being is made up of nothing but scum, bubbling, rotting scum, it is easy to hurt those who are injured, crippled, and the like, even those who became that way in the process of fighting for your own country, you know, veterans.
I cry for AMERICA.
SICK.MFs. if you ever known of such a household,or know the people, this should be a gut punch. how f en sick can ya get. trumps family had such a issue whereas they asked trump for help,trumps reply,let him die. the rich are making life and death decisions. the so called death panel slanted when the ACA was being debated,was to the face of the left. seems the real death panel always has been the right wing warmongers. id like to send a shoutout to the scumbag roth CEO of vernado. his remark about being called a billionaire and saying taxing the billionaires,as a racist slur. im sure your a facist also. then he goes on to say, we should be greatful for the billionaires. sure,thats why we the working class is in a hole most of our working life. the economy you buy up dictates why we are having the above conversation,because you want it all at our expense.
p.s. the silence is deafining.. with the iran issue. social media.web and American voices supported the protests in iran. now they have arrested upwards of 2500 people. who may/will be exicuted for protesting.
thank trump and our new mercinary military.
(as far as i see it, wall street and IMF crawled up trumps ass and said this will cost you money too. so he backs out.. my view… )
I am so ANGRY!!
The “it’s their fault they’re poor: look at me, I’m not poor” crowd needs some kind of radical comeuppance. I believe it’s on its way–it will hit different groups at different times, but the policies they cheer are likely going to hit them in the face in a big way.
This administration and its entire lack of humanity has challenged my prayer life. I can’t allow myself to pray for the outcome my unchristian self desires. God help us all.