The official Trump state media folks at Fox & Friends doing their best for white supremacy wanted everyone to know that Trump's mass kidnappings of immigrant children is fine because "[t]hese aren't our kids. … It's not like he is doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas."
Maybe not, but he and his minions in the Republican House have something else in mind for the kids in Idaho and Texas and every other place "our kids" live—starving them. The House, with just two votes passed their version of the farm bill Thursday, earning Trump's applause.
"So happy to see work requirements included," Trump crowed. Those would be the work requirements that will either totally eliminate or reduce food assistance to 2 million people in 1 million households, according to analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That includes families with children as an Urban Institute study details. In Idaho and Texas, too.
In all 50 states, many households with children could lose access to SNAP benefits if the proposed legislation were in effect today. States vary in the number of households with children and adults who would not consistently meet the monthly requirement. In Delaware, 47 percent of households with children have adults who would meet the requirement in one month but not in another. But in Wisconsin, 77 percent of households with children have adults who would meet the requirement in one month but not in another.In Idaho 67 percent of those families with children would meet the requirement in one month, but not in another. In Texas, it's 63 percent. Nationally, there are 2.7 million households with children where the adults would be subject to these work requirements. In about 1.9 million of those households—69 percent—the adults are working, but working in low-wage jobs that don't provide stable hours. Some months they'll meet the requirement of 20 hours/week and some months their employers don't give them those hours.
If there's any good news in this, the Senate has roundly rejected this policy. Even Republican Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) says "that’s very unfortunate that's where the House wants to go." There aren't any votes to spare in the House when the Senate rejects this and the conference committee refuses to accept it. It's very unlikely to become law.
Even so, the majority of House Republicans are on record—along with Trump—as supporting taking food away from "our kids."