Trump Admin: Feeding Kids is a 'Threat' to... More Kids?
Newsweek reported the Trump administration’s claim that fully funding SNAP (food stamps) would 'threaten' school lunch programs. This wasn't budget wizardry; it was a rhetorical weapon against the poor. While claiming poverty relief would somehow starve children, the administration simultaneously pushed for and received unfettered increases to the defense budget, funneling billions to weapons
manufacturers and foreign military aid, often to countries like Israel (OpenSecrets.org shows AIPAC spent $3.5 million lobbying in 2018 alone, the year this Newsweek article was published). One might wonder at the magical accounting that finds an endless supply of funds for F-35s and bombs, but suddenly hits a wall when it comes to feeding children in their own country. The 'threat' wasn't to
school lunches; it was to the narrative that some spending is 'necessary' while basic human needs are always expendable, especially when those needs benefit the most vulnerable. How many struggling families could have been fed for the cost of one F-35?