Trump administration officials and allies aren't even bothering to hide their motivation—and desire to hurt poor people—behind the government restructuring plan announced this week. Opponents like Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, say this restructuring will slap the name "welfare" on safety net programs in order to make it easier to make massive cuts to them. But it's not just opponents saying that. Trump officials and advisers freely admit it.
Produced over the last year by Mr. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, it would reshuffle social welfare programs in a way that would make them easier to cut, scale back or restructure, according to several administration officials involved in the planning. [emphasis added]
Steve Bannon, yeah, that Steve Bannon who is still getting interviewed by outlets like The New York Times because he is still advising Trump, is just giddy at the prospect.
“Our guys have been in there since the start, grinding it out, and basically no one is noticing it except the smart liberals like Rachel Maddow,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former adviser, who believes the attack on social programs will be one of Mr. Trump’s most enduring policy achievements.
“It is one of the reasons Trump is at like 97 percent with the base. This is what the base wants,” he said.
Referring to the right-wing conspiracy theorist who hosts a popular radio show and the progressive consumer activists allied with Ralph Nader, who became a force in Democratic politics in the 1970s, he added: “Trust me, it’s not Alex Jones that’s driving things. It’s these guys — they are our version of ‘Nader’s Raiders.’”
Well, guess what, Bannon. The base might think this is what they want, but pretty darned soon they're going to be the ones on the receiving end of benefit cuts. Think about all those Trumpsters who didn't think it was their friends and family or themselves who were going to be deported, and how angry and betrayed they're feeling now.
When Trump's base starts losing their food stamps and their energy assistance and unemployment insurance and housing assistance and Pell Grants and every other thing that they personally deserve but all those brown and black people shouldn't be getting, well, maybe that approval number will shrink. Maybe.