As we transition to a Trump presidency, we'll see the anti-Trump rhetoric increase. Watch particularly for louder cries for anything with a safety net mission for the poor and low income. Despite their expansion over 60 years and 123 wealth transfer programs all of which have been bi-partisan (except Obamacare), you'll be told it is President Trump and the GOP who are the haters and stingy. So find a report published in 2015 or 2016, the height of the Obama reign with the recession over for 7 years, and keep it handy--just so you know that we are always told the programs are a failing, therefore they need to expand.
"There are 42 million people in this country — 13 million of them children and over 5 million of them seniors — living in households struggling with hunger. This problem would be far, far worse if not for the nation’s very effective anti-hunger programs." (WhyHunger.org "School Breakfast at Half a Century," 2016) Every report says something similar. This time of year I am inundated with appeals from non-profits and parachurch groups to "end hunger," and "end homelessness." Often the organizations compete and work against each other.
The school breakfast program (about which the report discusses) has grown from about 80,000 in the first year of operation in 1966 to 14,900,000 last year. The total number of meals served annually in the program has climbed from just under 40 million in 1969 to more than 2.3 billion in 2015. If for some reason all the jobs programs of the coming administration were successful and every single mom or out of work dad had an above poverty level job, and every elderly person were reunited with family, there would be millions of government workers (housing, food, transportation, education, social work, academic researchers, etc.) out of a job, and it would start all over.
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