Kansas Governor Laura Kelly asked the federal government to let her state prohibit food stamps from being spent on soda and candy — then reversed course and vetoed a bill passed by the legislature to cut back on taxpayer-subsidized junk food.
The Democrat&#8217;s abrupt flip-flop is the latest example of strange behavior following a lobbying campaign by the soda and candy industries aimed at countering bipartisan support for reforming food stamps to reduce obesity-related health issues among the poor.
In March, the Kansas <a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/vote_view/je_20250219114953_198904/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legislature</a> <a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/vote_view/je_20250319154637_587964/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> a bill <a href="https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/documents/sb79_enrolled.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">instructing</a> “The secretary for children and families&#8221; to &#8220;request a waiver from the United States Department of Agriculture to exclude candy and soft drinks from the definition of eligible foods &#8230;&#8221;
On April 2 — before the bill had been signed, and, therefore, before she was required to — Kelly requested such a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25893168-snap-waiver/#document/p1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">waiver</a>, a copy of which was obtained by The Daily Wire. The waiver asked the federal government for permission to “exclude all candy and soda beverages (also known as soft drinks) from the definition of eligible foods under 7 CFR 271.2 for purchase with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.” 
The waiver argued that Kansas has an epidemic of ailments associated with obesity, like diabetes and heart disease.
“Current estimates rank Kansas 12th in the nation for obesity prevalence, with 34.4% of adults,” it said. “The primary goals of the SNAP program are to alleviate hunger and improve the nutrition and health of low-income individuals… Allowing the purchase of sugar sweetened soda beverages and candy with minimal nutritional value with federal dollars is harmful for low-income families, and it enables unhealthy nutritional habits. It also creates irresponsible spending of federal tax dollars and increased healthcare costs.”
The waiver, signed by Economic and Employment Services Director Carla Whiteside-Hicks, said that an Agriculture Department report found that in 2011, nearly $360 million in food stamp dollars were spent on soda, making it the second-most popular item, as well as $138 million on candy. 
But a day later, Kelly vetoed the bill, contradicting her own waiver’s arguments while echoing arguments from industry lobbyists that businesses would lose money if they can’t accept welfare dollars for soda and candy.
“This bill is simply wrong,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.governor.ks.gov/Home/Components/News/News/598/56#:~:text=The%20following%20veto%20message%20is%20from%20Governor%20Kelly%20regarding%20her%20veto%20of%20Senate%20Bill%2079%3A%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. &#8220;Not only would it make it more difficult for Kansans to access the food they need to feed their families, it would also harm Kansas businesses.&#8221;
“The waiver required by this bill is confusing and will cause problems for our grocers and small businesses. Under the definition in that waiver, Kansas businesses would be mandated to stop accepting food assistance benefits for protein bars, trail mix, and other food products many would consider ‘healthy.’ Meanwhile, items like Twix, Kit Kat, and Twizzlers would still be eligible for purchase using food assistance benefits. It’s nonsensical,” the veto justification said.
The bill defined candy and soda using their existing definitions in Kansas state code, saying “candy is defined as a preparation of sugar, honey or other natural or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops or pieces. Candy does not include any preparation containing flour and shall require no refrigeration. Soft drink beverages are defined as nonalcoholic beverages that contain natural or artificial sweeteners. Soft drinks do not include beverages that contain milk or milk products, soy, rice or similar milk substitutes or beverages that are greater than 50% vegetable or fruit juice.”
Kelly left the door open to supporting policy changes that would go further, such as banning soda and candy across the entire nation.
“I support the idea that Kansans should eat healthier. However, changes to the SNAP food assistance program should be made at the federal level, not on a patchwork, state-by-state basis,” she said.
The vagaries and loopholes in defining what counts as soda and candy could also be alleviated with a stricter approach that lays out what can be bought with food stamps, rather than what can&#8217;t. SNAP could be limited to specifically-approved staples by mirroring or merging with another federal poverty program called Women, Infant, and Children (WIC). Or it could return to its roots and distribute <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bulk commodities directly to families</a>, instead of giving them coupons to spend at corner stores. 
The Foundation for Government Accountability, a watchdog group, has suggested that donations and lobbying from interests that profit off of creating and treating obesity may have played a role in a series of reversals and uncharacteristic positions taken in the debate about soda and food stamps.
The American Heart Association (AHA) shocked Texas legislators last month by testifying against a similar bill there, even though its research shows that soda and candy are bad for the heart, and even though the Texas Medical Association testified in support of the bill. The AHA has taken money from PepsiCo and more than a million dollars each from Walmart, Pfizer, and Novo Nordisk, the maker of the obesity drug Ozempic. The AHA later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-heart-association-retracts-food-stamp-soda-opposition?row=0&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;title=American+Heart+Association+Retracts+Opposition+To+Barring+Soda%2C+Candy+From+Food+Stamps&amp;category=News" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retracted</a> its testimony and said it does not oppose such bills.
“First, the American Heart Association flip-flopped and backed away from Big Soda in Texas; now it seems like Kansas’s Democratic Governor Laura Kelly is flip-flopping the other direction to support junk food on food stamps,&#8221; Foundation for Government Accountability spokesman Adam Gibbs told The Daily Wire. &#8220;There’s something about this taxpayer-funded soda ban that has certain people spinning in circles.&#8221;
&#8220;The Governor can’t decide who to back — her constituents or Big Soda,&#8221; he added.
Some conservative influencers said they were offered money to make social media posts spinning welfare for soda as conservative. The soda lobby is also <a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/oppose-restrictions-on-snap-benefits/?utm_source=x&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=social_x_social_20250312_E_no_1_" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoting unusual op-eds in conservative media</a> that try to convince free-market conservatives to rally around taxpayer-funded junk food. Newsmax published one such piece, “Keep Bureaucrats’ Hands Out of American’s [sic] Grocery Carts – Please.” It was authored by Tom Giovanetti of the Institute for Policy Innovation, which, according to <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?page=3&amp;q=%22Institute+for+Policy+Innovation%22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax records</a>, is funded by PhRMA, whose members profit from treating the unhealthy.
“Lawmakers must override the governor’s veto to ensure that the will of Kansans is delivered,&#8221; Gibbs said. &#8220;They can either stand with the MAHA moms who voted for President Trump in November—or they can fall in line with whatever political game Governor Kelly is playing this week.”
Kansas requires a two-thirds vote to override a veto. The Senate already has the votes, but the House would need about 18 members to switch positions.
Colorado and Arizona, two other states with Democrat governors, have received similar bills passed by their legislatures.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/food-stamps-accepted-at-thousands-of-liquor-and-tobacco-stores-contributing-to-healthcare-fiasco">Food Stamps Accepted At Thousands Of Liquor And Tobacco Stores, Contributing To Healthcare Fiasco</a>

spilled soda Stock photo

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly Flip-Flops On SNAP Soda Ban, Vetoes Bill

Kansas

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

USDA

Welfare

A lobbyist for the American Heart Association turned heads last week when he asked Texas Republicans not to exclude soda, ultra-processed deserts, and candy from the list of items that can be bought with food stamps, despite the fact that the medical group has for years warned that such foods cause heart disease.
The testimony seemingly prioritized a left-wing opposition to welfare reform over the group&#8217;s mission and expertise — similar to scientists who said during COVID that mass gatherings were dangerous unless they were Black Lives Matter rallies, contributing to a dramatic loss of trust in medical experts. The testimony by Alec Puente, <a href="https://newsroom.heart.org/file/yama-and-alec?action=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">director of government relations</a> for AHA, was so surprising that state Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst (R), chair of the Committee on Health and Human Services, repeatedly wondered if AHA could truly be taking the position.
“I often say I can never be surprised in this building, but for the American Heart Association to be against this bill, that might be the surprise of the session so far,&#8221; Sen. Kolkhorst said. &#8220;I would encourage you to look at what it restricts. I don&#8217;t know if y&#8217;all&#8217;s board voted on that.”
But now, AHA has retracted the testimony, with spokesman Steve Weiss telling The Daily Wire that “The Association’s position on Texas Senate Bill 379 was miscommunicated during the TX Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing last week. The Association is not opposed to the bill, which would restrict purchases of sugary drinks and certain other unhealthy foods within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).”
“The miscommunication at the hearing from our representative, who is based in Texas, was unfortunate. We have corrected the record and worked to ensure this will not happen again,” Weiss said via email. “The Association remains committed to increasing the consumption of healthy food and decreasing the consumption of sugary drinks across our mission-critical work in scientific research, public policy and public awareness.”
He would not explain how the organization’s lobbyist managed to inadvertently <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R/witlistmtg/pdf/C6102025031113301.PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">register in advance</a> specifically to testify against the bill, travel to the state capitol, and provide written and oral testimony that was the exact opposite of the organization’s mission. According to the Texas committee&#8217;s list of registered witnesses, Puente was joined by Walmart in opposing the law, while representatives from the Texas Radiological Society, Texas Medical Association, Make Texans Healthy Again, and End Chronic Disease showed up to support it.
Soda is the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">single most frequently purchased item with food stamps</a>, despite the program&#8217;s stated goal of increasing nutrition for Americans. The AHA has lobbied cities to heavily <a href="https://newsroom.heart.org/local-news/measure-z-passes-in-berkeley-and-santa-cruz-to-support-safe-and-healthy-communities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax soda</a> to disincentivize workers from purchasing it, but Puente told the Texas legislators that tax dollars should continue to buy soda outright for those on welfare.
“While improving Texans&#8217; diet is a shared goal, the heart association is concerned about potential impacts of this bill on participation and population health,” <a href="https://senate.texas.gov/videoplayer.php?vid=21315&amp;lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Puente testified</a>. “Policies intended to reduce obesity should be focused on the population as a whole rather than singling out SNAP participants. While we know that SNAP is meant to be a supplement, healthy fruits and vegetables remain out of reach for many, and this will not change until benefit adequacy is addressed.&#8221;
He advocated for SNAP benefits to be increased while still permitting them to be spent on junk food, which he said would result in more purchases of fruit.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-611453" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/20230829_104856-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>
“I certainly understand why that might be surprising,&#8221; Puente responded to rebuttal from Kolkhorst, the bewildered lawmaker. &#8220;If we were talking about the issue a bit more generally I think the position might be a bit more nuanced, but I think the basic position is going to be that for something like this, we would need to be confident that it would not have an impact on overall participation in the program.”
Puente did not explain why food stamp recipients would stop participating in the program if they could not buy soda and potato chips with it, why the heart association would have an interest in maintaining welfare participation rates, or how increasing food stamp benefits so participants could buy fruits on top of their existing load of artery-clogging sweets would reduce obesity.
His testimony was preceded by that of Grace Price, a 19-year old food activist, who said “SNAP kids consume 43% more sugary drinks than those not on SNAP.&#8221;
&#8220;With 72% of SNAP recipients also on Medicaid, we are paying for the problem and the solution,&#8221; Price said. &#8220;This isn&#8217;t complicated; even my six-year old niece knows candy and soda are unhealthy. You don&#8217;t need a masters degree to know they have no place in a nutrition program.”
SNAP is a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$124 billion-a-year program</a> that allows poor people to buy virtually any edible item with the exception, in most cases, of restaurant meals. Food stamps are even accepted at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/food-stamps-accepted-at-thousands-of-liquor-and-tobacco-stores-contributing-to-healthcare-fiasco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thousands of liquor or tobacco stores</a>, in case someone wants to pick up a Mountain Dew to chase their vodka or a bag of Skittles to go with their cigarettes.
Politicians from both parties have periodically noted the absurdity of including taxpayer-funded soda and candy in a nutrition program, with states like New York attempting to block soda. But SNAP is a federal program, and the feds have refused to allow states waivers allowing them to do so, even as pilot programs.
Now a coalition is forming between Make America Healthy Again advocates and Department of Government Efficiency proponents. Liberals have said DOGE will fail to balance the budget because such a large portion of federal spending is tied up in Medicare and Medicaid. But reducing obesity by improving diets among the poor could drastically decrease Medicaid spending relating to issues like diabetes.
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, who is from Texas, is expected to grant waivers to states who ask, and Arkansas has said it will do so. The change could also be nationwide; <a href="https://brecheen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=166" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marco Rubio introduced such a bill</a> in the Senate in 2023.
Roy Lenardson of the Foundation for Government Accountability testified in support of the bill at the Texas hearing.
“How is it going with our health in this country? If 42% of adults and 20% of kids are obese&#8230;and obesity has tripled since the 1960s&#8230;it&#8217;s not going great.&#8221; He told The Daily Wire that even Sonny Purdue, the agriculture secretary during Trump’s first term, blocked Maine’s request to exclude soda from the welfare program, and that special interests fight hard to keep the spigots of taxpayer money flowing for soda and candy.
<div id="attachment_842733" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-842733" class="size-large wp-image-842733" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-1024x556.png" alt="Antioch Tobacco &amp; Beer in Antioch, Tennessee / Google" width="1024" height="556" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-1024x556.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-300x163.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-768x417.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-1536x833.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-beer-2048x1111.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Antioch Tobacco &amp; Beer in Antioch, Tennessee / Google</div>
He said such funding could explain the American Heart Association testimony, noting that it has received more than a <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/founders-day/second-century-campaign-donors">million dollars</a> each from Walmart, Pfizer, and Novo Nordisk — the maker of obesity drug Ozempic — and that <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/company-collaboration/food-system-strategy/aha-industry-nutrition-forum/industry-nutrition-forum-members" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PepsiCo pays it</a> to be part of its Industry Nutrition Forum.
&#8220;Voters put the MAHA movement’s hands on the levers of power, and the taxpayer-funded junk food cartel is sweating bullets,&#8221; Lenardson said.
The American Beverage Association, the industry group for soda manufacturers, is mounting a nationwide media offensive that attempts to persuade Republican lawmakers against reforms to the program. The industry group is attempting to cast the ability to buy taxpayer-funded junk food as an issue of liberty.
The ad campaign, called &#8220;<a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/about/">Your Cart, Your Choice</a>,&#8221; is spearheaded by the soda group in partnership with the National Confectioners Association, which represents candy manufacturers, and the Corn Refiners Association, which profits from high-fructose corn syrup.
“Restricting what one segment of the population can buy at the grocery store just because they need temporary government assistance goes against American values. These proposals treat families <a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/oppose-restrictions-on-snap-benefits/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and veterans</a> as second-class citizens,” it says. “REJECT these so-called ‘reforms’ and take action to protect the freedom of food and beverage choice for all Americans,” it adds on top of an image of an American flag.
Its paid ads on X have been met with uniform derision, with one user responding: “Not your money, not your choice.”
In a statement to The Daily Wire, the group reiterated its liberty-centric argument for not restricting food stamp spending.
“Government meddling in Texans’ grocery carts does nothing to make us healthier and won’t save taxpayers a single dollar, but it will add new layers of red tape and empower government bureaucrats to force their ideas onto your shopping list,” said Americans for Food &amp; Beverage Choice spokeswoman Stacie Rumenap. “The working-class coalition that showed up this past election voted to reject bloated and inefficient government. Politicians should take note.”
The soda lobby is also <a href="https://yourcartyourchoice.com/oppose-restrictions-on-snap-benefits/?utm_source=x&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=social_x_social_20250312_E_no_1_" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoting unusual op-eds in conservative media</a> that try to convince free-market conservatives to rally around taxpayer-funded junk food.
Newsmax published one such piece, “Keep Bureaucrats’ Hands Out of American’s [sic] Grocery Carts – Please.” It was authored by Tom Giovanetti of the Institute for Policy Innovation, which, according to <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/full_text_search?page=3&amp;q=%22Institute+for+Policy+Innovation%22" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax records</a>, is funded by PhRMA, whose members profit from treating the unhealthy

Alec Puente / Texas Senate

American Heart Association Retracts Opposition To Barring Soda, Candy From Food Stamps

Agriculture

Food Stamps

Health

Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – The large, organized constellation of United Nations and nongovernmental organization (NGO) agencies sees a rosy future for itself even under Donald Trump, having already directed billions of mostly U.S. taxpayer dollars into supporting millions of illegal southern border crossing trips during President Joe Biden’s term.
Perhaps, in part, to keep the migratory pressure on America’s southern border, using U.S. taxpayer money, as Trump mounts a planned border crackdown this year.
The U.N.-organized conglomerate recently released its 2025-2026 “<a href="https://www.r4v.info/en/rmrp2025-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Regional Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP)</a>,” which is a budget needs analysis for Latin America migration support developed during the U.S. presidential campaign but recognizes in its published iteration that Trump was re-elected.
<div id="attachment_858393" style="width: 366px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-858393" class="wp-image-858393 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/woman-and-child.png" alt="Credit: r4v.info/en" width="356" height="512" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/woman-and-child.png 356w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/woman-and-child-209x300.png 209w" sizes="(max-width: 356px) 100vw, 356px" />Credit: r4v.info/en</div>
The document calls for maintaining spending levels as high as when a mass migration torrent was at full throttle in recent years. It wants $1.4 billion to support 2.3 million foreign nationals from throughout the world who will be on the move toward the U.S. southern border through 17 Latin American countries, and $1.2 billion in 2026. That’s down from 2024’s $1.6 billion and <a href="https://cis.org/Bensman/United-Nations-Hand-Out-Hundreds-Millions-Cash-USBound-Immigrants-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023’s $1.72 billion</a>.
The 14 U.N. and 230 NGO agencies (<a href="https://www.r4v.info/en/rmrp2025-2026" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a list of these agencies can be found on page 434</a>) will use the funding in 2025 to support 14 different forms of migration or refugee assistance in the hemisphere, including, for instance, $259 million in “cash, voucher assistance and multi-purpose cash assistance” to 390,000 foreign nationals during 2025. That money will be dished out as <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/FY_2021_MPCA_Sector_Update_1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rechargeable cash debit cards</a>, “<a href="https://emergencymanual.iom.int/cash-based-interventions-cbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cash in envelopes</a>,” bank transfers, and mobile transfers for whatever migrants might need on the road.
They also call for $134 million in food provisions for 851,600 people, $13.5 million in “humanitarian transportation” to 94,800 foreign nationals, $297 million to 735,000 people for shelter such as hotels and longer-term rental properties, $150 million in health services to 1.4 million people, and millions more for a half dozen other kinds of migration needs on the trails.
<div id="attachment_858405" style="width: 306px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-858405" class="wp-image-858405 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/card-image.jpg" alt="Credit: Todd Bensman" width="296" height="394" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/card-image.jpg 296w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/card-image-225x300.jpg 225w" sizes="(max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px" />Credit: Todd Bensman</div>
Spearheaded in 2019 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM), which receive the bulk of their money from the United States, the coordinated RMRP migration support effort initially started to meet the needs of more than seven million Venezuelans who emigrated out of their failing home country. But RMRP planning documents openly acknowledge mission creep to support migrants of all “other nationalities…engaging in transit and onward movements” to the U.S. southern border. In 2023, the U.S. contributed $1.9 billion to the UNHCR, compared to a mere <a href="https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/Flexible-Funding-in-2019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$377 million in 2019</a>. 
<div id="attachment_858409" style="width: 522px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-858409" class="wp-image-858409 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/scale-it-money.png" alt="Credit: r4v.info/en, page 15" width="512" height="90" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/scale-it-money.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/scale-it-money-300x53.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" />Credit: r4v.info/en</div>
The new document notes Trump’s reelection but does not explicitly discuss its 2025-2026 needs in conjunction with Trump’s plans to immediately halt more than three years of an illegal immigration border surge that The New York Times<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/briefing/us-immigration-surge.html"> recently concluded in an analysis</a> was the “largest in U.S. history” and was directly caused by “President Biden’s welcoming immigration policy during his first three years in office.”
The group’s chief U.N. bureaucrat makes an oblique reference to a new negativity in “receiving nations” without naming the United States.
“It is essential to change the narrative that underscores the prevalent negative conception of migration agendas as only a source of problems and difficulties and keep striving for bringing to the fore the positive narrative of the contributions they can provide to receiving communities,” wrote Eduardo Stein, the UN’s Joint Special Representative for Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants in the document’s introduction. 
Left unsaid is exactly how the U.N. and NGOs proposing these large ongoing expenditures really view them in light of the anticipated <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-trump-effect-2-0-illegal-border-crossings-set-to-plummet-on-one-condition">reduction in migration flows</a> expected after Trump’s January 20, 2025 inauguration, when his &#8220;detain-and-expel&#8221; policies quickly replace Biden’s incentivizing catch-and-release policies.
Already, just the prospect of a Trump administration has vastly reduced international migration flows <a href="https://www.latintimes.com/migrant-flow-through-darien-gap-drops-40-panama-closes-trails-wired-fences-570442" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by more than 40 percent</a> through the Colombia-Panama Darien Gap, while many immigrants in Mexico say <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14175103/mexico-migrant-crisis-trump-biden-todd-bensman.html">they’ll return to their home countries</a>.
The omission of straightforward references to the coming U.S. political pivot on illegal immigration suggests that the group likely assumes funding would be used to sustain migrants while Trump policies compel them to wait in third countries, perhaps waiting for – or even facilitating – Trump policy failure or for a future friendlier U.S. presidency.
<div id="attachment_858425" style="width: 943px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-858425" class="size-large wp-image-858425" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2149448157-933x576.jpg" alt="TOPSHOT - Migrant people of different nationalities seeking asylum in the United States travel on freight cars of the Mexican train known as &quot;The Beast&quot; as they arrive at the border city of Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua state, Mexico on April 24, 2024. (Photo by Herika Martinez / AFP) (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images)" width="933" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2149448157-933x576.jpg 933w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2149448157-300x185.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2149448157-768x474.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-2149448157.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 933px) 100vw, 933px" />HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images</div>
Regardless of U.N. intent, in the meantime, a potential – even probable – consequence of this continuing level of migration trail support would be to sustain steady pressure on Trump’s border for at least the next two years, perhaps even enough to induce policy failure.
The document seems to suggest some money might fund legal and propaganda operations.
For instance, one activity the group promotes as a high priority is to provide $204 million toward “protection,” topping the list is “legal assistance and counseling” that can counter a regional “shift towards more restrictive and security-focused approaches of managing migration and asylum…,” the document notes on page 77 in a category section titled “Protection.”
The legal assistance and counseling will, it says, reduce risks related to migrant returns to home countries that their advocates would argue were too dangerous, known as “refoulment,” as well as “deportations, and arbitrary and prolonged detentions.” The group will call on academics and human rights organizations in migration trail nations “to ensure visibility of key protection issues affecting refugees and migrants in the region.” Those might include countries the Trump administration plans to diplomatically coerce into helping slow flows.
<h3>A Point Of Contention And Potential Republican Action</h3>
In recent years, the UN-led conglomerate’s migration support efforts along the migration trails have become politically controversial because of the record-smashing traffic flows, especially among Trump supporters and some hardline border security-minded Republican lawmakers. Some saw the U.S. tax money funding the program as driving a self-destructive mass migration crisis that broadly damaged American national interests and advocated that U.S. money for that be pared back.
Republican lawmakers such as Texas Rep. Lance Gooden even <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6155" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed a bill to defund the U.N. of U.S. donations</a>, which did not advance when congressional chambers were split between Republicans and Democrats.
<div id="attachment_858413" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-858413" class="size-large wp-image-858413" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1743011003-864x576.jpg" alt="Representative Lance Gooden, a Republican from Texas, speaks to members of the media outside of a House Republican caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. Representative Tom Emmer dropped his bid for House speaker Tuesday after criticism from Donald Trump, becoming the third GOP nominee for the leadership post to be dragged down by seething divisions within the party. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1743011003-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1743011003-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1743011003-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/GettyImages-1743011003.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Representative Lance Gooden. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
But with the trifecta of a White House and both chambers of Congress in Republican hands as of January 20, the prospects for some kind of funding rollback for this kind of U.N. and NGO support seem more likely. Rep. Gooden told The Daily Wire he would try again under the more favorable new circumstances.
“Under the Biden administration, U.S. dollars are being funneled through the United Nation’s IOM into programs that facilitate and encourage illegal migration into our own country,” Rep. Gooden told The Daily Wire for this report. “I will work with President Trump to ensure that no one cent of American money supports the erosion of our sovereignty. We will end this taxpayer funded invasion.”
<h3><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN &#8217;25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25</a></h3>
Dr. Nayla Rush, Senior Researcher at the Center for Immigration and a refugee policy expert, noted that the IOM and UNHCR mission is to assist migrants and refugees in need wherever they are. But as their top funder, the United States has a right to ensure neither organization is encouraging or guiding migrants to illegally enter the United States or submit false asylum claims.
&#8220;The U.S. government should ask for complete transparency and accountability as to where and how both organizations spend US taxpayer money.&#8221;
<h3>Creating Migration Pressure On Trump Or Reducing Suffering?</h3>
In early 2022, UNHCR spokeswoman for Mexico <a href="https://cis.org/Bensman/Mexicos-Deep-South-United-Nations-Explains-Handing-Cash-USBound-Migrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Silvia Garduno explained</a> that her agency does not look for or consider evidence of illegal immigration but, rather, regards individuals it helps who are moving through as “vulnerable asylum seekers.”
“UNHCR assistance is based strictly on the humanitarian need of individuals in need of international protection,” she said. “UNHRC supports the authorities by providing individuals information on the right to seek asylum and assists individuals while their asylum applications are in process by, for example, referring them to shelters operated by civil society, providing legal assistance, or providing humanitarian support for food and basic needs for the most vulnerable.
<div id="attachment_816347" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-816347" class="size-large wp-image-816347" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/10/Untitled-design-43-1024x576.jpg" alt="A migrant caravan walks into the interior of Mexico after crossing the Guatemalan border on October 21, 2018 near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico The caravan of Central Americans plans to eventually reach the United States." width="1024" height="576" />(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)</div>
But the group’s own document repeatedly acknowledges knowing that those it helps are moving ever forward over international borders without authorization.
The group is clearly not planning any retreat.
When it started operations in 2019, the conglomerate provided its aid via a network of ad hoc way-stations along known <a href="https://cis.org/Video/Cartels-UN-and-NGOs-Fuel-US-Border-Crisis">smuggling routes</a> from South America to the northern U.S.-Mexico border.
In recent years, however, the U.N. group has plowed investment funds into large multi-purpose structures like a <a href="https://cis.org/Bensman/OneStop-Shop-Illegal-Migration">75,000-square-foot mega-mall</a> just built in Tapachula, Mexico just north of the Guatemala border.
The UNHCR, IOM, and dozens of private often religion-based NGOs scattered around Tapachula, will work alongside one another under one massive roof here – evidently planning a years-long collaboration.
* * *
Todd Bensman is a Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a two-time <a href="https://www.toddbensman.com/awards/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Press Club award winner.</a> He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a 23-year veteran newspaper reporter. He is the author of “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Covert-Border-War-Infiltration/dp/1642937258/ref=sr_1_2?crid=BP7S7BH2VBFB&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.O6ZnUZYfSlVsoiHcdjPhFHfMHLUTDwW2ZnKSAJboBbE5kdYf_h7sD08-h6YkTqOaoX3BwNswbUMPbnTbwQYA0OPgQiI3nLoLjosQWsEhFf5KFAPB4F0DTwUsSoJFgmaEF7V1rMQnOPvLvOLapFQ1ESD-D7UVwCNHsSGEs2XzEa9rmO1CLoVV277SrmlPOkJf.15UkCaAoqCyd7hpP16dl7D3_ZWawrd1RcN3D_ZSFo4w&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=todd+bensman&amp;qid=1730314546&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=todd+bensman%2Cstripbooks%2C100&amp;sr=1-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">America’s Covert Border War</a>,” and “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Overrun-Unleashed-Greatest-Border-History-ebook/dp/B0BS1R9LCP?ref_=ast_author_dp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History</a>.”
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
This article has been edited for clarity.

Pandemic Era Border Policy Title 42 Expires

As Trump 2.0 Approaches, NGOs Continue To Fund Mass Migration With U.S. Tax Dollars

Border Crisis

Central America

Darien Gap

Illegal Immigration

Mexico

Panama

Southern Border

Taxes

United Nations

Nearly 5,000 stores with words related to “liquor” or “tobacco” in their names accept food stamps, a Daily Wire review of government data found.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the food stamp program, currently allows more than 3,700 stores with “liquor,” “beer,” “wine,” or “spirits” in their names to accept food stamps. Food stamps aren’t allowed to be used for alcohol, but they can be used for nearly anything edible, so the stores are allowed to accept them on the idea that someone might want to buy snacks, such as a bag of chips, at the liquor store. Such stores are highly unlikely to sell much healthy food, and the snacks they sell are likely ultra-processed junk food sold in small quantities at a very high markup.
The findings highlight how the $113 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) often contributes to making people less healthy. Democrat and Republican governors alike have signaled support for reforming SNAP to block junk food in order to deal with persistent problems regarding health — or, as Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-governor-calls-incoming-trump-141200605.html">put it</a>, “Make America Healthy Again.”
Junk food and soda are permitted expenditures with SNAP, and soda is the number one most-purchased item. While alcohol and tobacco aren&#8217;t, the USDA essentially has to rely on store owners&#8217; honesty when reporting what was actually rung up. Selling ineligible products, or trading food stamps for cash, is unlikely to happen at major grocery chains, but far more likely to happen at inner-city liquor stores.
The stores include Bottles Liquor in Oakland, whose windows advertise luxury alcohols like Patron.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842769 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-1024x509.png" alt="" width="1024" height="509" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-1024x509.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-300x149.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-768x381.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles-1536x763.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/bottles.png 1756w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Or a store in Detroit with a sign that simply says LIQUOR, where signs advertise various beers, lottery machines, and the fact that people can access Bitcoin, a favorite for illicit transactions, there.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842773 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-959x576.png" alt="" width="959" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-959x576.png 959w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-300x180.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit-768x461.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/detroit.png 1502w" sizes="(max-width: 959px) 100vw, 959px" /></div>
Residents of Antioch, Tennessee who want to use a taxpayer-funded nutrition program at a store dedicated to harming both livers and lungs can check out Antioch Tobacco &amp; Beer, where signs advertise Bud Light, Sonoma Cigarettes, Rockstar energy drinks, and the fact that EBT — the debit card that holds food stamps — is accepted.
The federal government has ensured that SNAP can be spent at about 1,000 stores whose names contain “tobacco,” “smoke,” “cigar,” or “vape.” Those enjoying Reno, Nevada’s vices can spend their government benefits at Stay High Liquor &amp; Smoke.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842737 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-766x576.png" alt="" width="766" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-766x576.png 766w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-300x226.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-768x577.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high-1536x1155.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/stay-high.png 1990w" sizes="(max-width: 766px) 100vw, 766px" /></div>
Phoenix residents who anticipate that after buying a blunt wrap, they might want a bag of Funyuns can check out “Cell Repair – Smoke &amp; Vape Shop,” where you can buy cannabis products and where the “EBT SNAP CARDS ACCEPTED HERE” sign is larger than the name of the store itself.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842777 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-773x576.png" alt="" width="773" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-773x576.png 773w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-300x224.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape-768x572.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/smoke-vape.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 773px) 100vw, 773px" /></div>
Tobacco Depot in Stockton, California focuses its advertising on the fact that you can buy both cigarettes and glass pipes used for drugs, as well as that the store does “accept E.B.T.”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842813 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-577x576.png" alt="" width="577" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-577x576.png 577w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-300x300.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-150x150.png 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1-768x766.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/tobacco-depot-1.png 790w" sizes="(max-width: 577px) 100vw, 577px" /></div>
In Huntington, Indiana, I Puff Discount Tobacco contains a marijuana leaf in its window and accepts EBT, perhaps for those who want to pick up a Mountain Dew if whatever they’re smoking dries out their mouth.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-842791 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-1006x576.png" alt="" width="1006" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-1006x576.png 1006w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-300x172.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff-768x440.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ipuff.png 1338w" sizes="(max-width: 1006px) 100vw, 1006px" /></div>
On top of the 5,000 liquor and smoke shops, welfare beneficiaries — who are more likely than the general population to be obese — can spend their taxpayer-funded nutrition dollars at candy stores, like Angie’s Candy Store in Milwaukee.
Nearly 200 firms with &#8220;liquor&#8221; in the name have been found to have defrauded the food stamp program in recent years. <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-crains-ice-cream-liquor-c0201168.pdf">Crain&#8217;s Ice Cream &amp; Liquor</a> took food stamps, until the government was surprised to learn that it wasn&#8217;t a bona fide source of nutrition, instead finding &#8220;irregular transactions&#8221; of hundreds of dollars making &#8220;the case of trafficking&#8230; convincing.&#8221; Its receipts did not even indicate whether the items purchased were food or not.
Since 2017, 51 stores with the name &#8220;tobacco&#8221; in their name have been found to have committed fraud, according to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/retailer-sanctions-final-agency-decisions-fads?title=tobacco&amp;field_fiscal_year_value=&amp;order=field_fad_date&amp;sort=desc">USDA data</a>.
For example, inspectors visited <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/FAD-AmigosTobaccoShop-C0242309.pdf">Amigos Tobacco Shop</a> in Greenville, North Carolina three times, and all three times they observed food stamps being accepted for non-food items, presumably tobacco, by multiple clerks. The store was barred from accepting food stamps for six months, although the punishment was postponed because the store owner appealed, complaining that SNAP was &#8220;very important&#8221; to his tobacco store&#8217;s income stream.
<a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-t-j-cell-tobacco-c0224383.pdf">T&amp;J Cell &amp; Tobacco</a> in Milwaukee was authorized to take food stamps even though there are more than 90 stores within a two-mile radius, including supermarkets, that sell wide selections of food and accept the benefit. USDA investigators found that it was ringing up unusually high-dollar transactions, even though it offered &#8220;mainly snacks foods and beverages.&#8221; It banned the store for &#8220;trafficking&#8221; food stamps, which is when a clerk rings up fake products and gives half the amount to the customer in cash.
When inspectors visited <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-manchester-tobacco-outlet-C0208524.pdf">Manchester Tobacco Outlet</a> in Manchester, Tennessee, it didn&#8217;t even have a selection of staple foods for sale, which the owner said was because &#8220;we ran out of goods.&#8221; <a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-os-pipe-tobacco-C0201725.pdf">Os Pipe &amp; Tobacco</a> of Denver was eligible to accept food stamps, until the government realized its owner was a convicted drug dealer.
<a href="https://dam-fns.usda.gov/media/FNS/fad-liquor-beer-tobacco-outlet-C0197734.pdf">Liquor Beer &amp; Tobacco Outlet</a> in Charles City, Iowa, was allowed to accept food stamps. Investigators found it was ringing up high-dollar transactions even though it only sold small items like snacks and didn&#8217;t even have shopping baskets, leading them to conclude that it was simply laundering food stamps for cash.
&#8220;It is not plausible that the firm&#8217;s customers would carry large amount of merchandise around the store without the benefit of shopping carts or baskets or that customers would routinely do the bulk of their grocery purchases at a moderately-stocked convenience store rather than a nearby superstore or supermarket with significantly more inventory and lower prices,&#8221; investigators wrote.
On December 6, The Daily Wire laid out the case for how <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">SNAP could be replaced</a> by a system that purchased healthy food in bulk from farmers, and sent them to needy people upon request. That could save money not just on SNAP itself, but on the Medicaid costs associated with obesity.
On Wednesday, Gov. Sanders <a href="https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/governor-sanders-calls-for-reforms-to-the-snap-program/">wrote</a> to Robert F. Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary, and Brooke Rollins, his Agriculture nominee, that reforming SNAP could be part of the Make America Healthy Again agenda.
&#8220;Unfortunately, this &#8216;Nutrition Assistance&#8217; program is undermining the health of millions of Americans, on the taxpayer’s dime, by encouraging families to eat highly processed, unhealthy junk food,&#8221; Sanders wrote. She said soda, unhealthy snacks, and candy make up a large portion of SNAP purchases, which is harming her state, where 40% of residents are obese and one-third have diabetes or pre-diabetes.
She noted that a Stanford study by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Trump&#8217;s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, &#8220;estimated that prohibiting sugary drinks and soda from SNAP would prevent obesity in 141,000 kids and Type 2 diabetes in 240,000 adults. Since joint state and federal healthcare spending is quickly approaching $2 trillion each year, we should embrace commonsense, preventative healthcare policies.&#8221;
Sanders also said shifting the program to healthy, homegrown food would also support farmers, and said she would seek a waiver from SNAP to steer the program towards healthy foods in her state. In previous administrations, the federal government has refused to give states waivers blocking junk food, including New York, which wanted to ban soda.
On X, Jared Polis, the Democrat governor of Colorado, echoed his <a href="https://x.com/GovofCO/status/1866903155495079983">support</a>, saying, &#8220;Prioritizing healthy, fresh foods over junk food and soda will reduce the risk of having future health issues such as diabetes and cavities.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-can-food-stamps-buy-junk-food-how-doge-could-save-billions-and-maha">Why Can Food Stamps Buy Junk Food? How DOGE Could Save Billions And MAHA</a>

Antioch Tobacco & Beer in Antioch, Tennessee / Google

Food Stamps Accepted At Thousands Of Liquor And Tobacco Stores, Contributing To Healthcare Fiasco

Department of Health and Human Services

Obesity

On Monday, Politico ran a long <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/18/surgeon-general-tools-loneliness-00131734" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy is apparently “worried about our sad social lives.” 
According to Politico, “Americans are burned out, disconnected, isolated and starved for time. Maybe it’s post-pandemic blues. Maybe it’s our smartphone addiction. Whatever the cause, it’s serious enough that Murthy has issued a formal advisory to the nation calling for action to address this ‘epidemic.’”
What are Murthy’s solutions? He is hosting events trying to put people in proximity with one another and speaking about the “power of friendship.” At these events, as Politico describes, “People dressed as dancing unicorns handed out prescriptions for five minutes of social connection. (Quantity: Endless. Refills: Daily.)” Murthy then encouraged people to spend 45 seconds writing a text to a loved one. He asks people to engage in what he calls “the connection exercise.” He says that such exercises can be “supplemented by investments in social infrastructure, which is where policymakers come in.”
Or, alternatively, it’s precisely where policymakers should butt out.
There is a reason for our loneliness epidemic. Sure, it has to do with smartphones and the internet and the increasing atomization of our lives as we hunker down with our screens. But screens are just a tool to be used for good or ill. The real problem is that our social institutions have been summarily destroyed over the course of decades by government.
Those social institutions used to begin with and center around church.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1872-go-to-church-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h4>
Historically, churches fulfilled three interwoven functions. First, they provided common orientation around a higher goal, complete with rules and regulations that required skin in the game in order to be accepted into the group. Second, they provided economic benefits and social reinforcement, ranging from charity to the helping hands of neighbors. Finally, emerging from the first two functions, they created a feeling of community. 
That feeling of community, as sociologist Émile Durkheim wrote, could only be attained with reference to the sacred: a series of beliefs so worthwhile that they were not to be questioned. As Robert Nisbet <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Community-Background-Essential-Conservative/dp/1935191500" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>, “It is community that gives to the sacred its most vital expressions everywhere: birth, marriage, death, and other moments in the human drama.”
The sacred, then, undergirded the community.
And the community provided the support structure necessary for the flourishing of the family.
And then government tried to replace church and destroyed community.
The first step was the substitution of government benefits for the earned membership of a church. People no longer had to have skin in the game of a community in order to be given charity — now they had “entitlements” by dint of breathing. According to a National Bureau of Economic Research <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2005618486/#:~:text=Crowd%2Dout%20was%20small%20as,church%20activity%20observed%20between%201933" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a>, New Deal policies crowded out 30% of all charitable spending by churches. Government benefits were made exponentially greater. Family structure itself was dramatically undermined by government spending since you were no longer responsible for your kids or your parents. Government was. Your call on your neighbor no longer required you to sacrifice for the community. Instead, you could point the government gun at him and steal his wallet.
Able to reap the rewards without the costs, many people stopped going to church. And over the course of decades, churches began to adjust to that reality not by reinforcing common orientation around a higher goal — sanctity — but by trying to get rid of “judgment” so as to include more people. Churches began to try to mirror government: no skin in the game, plenty of benefits. As Gertrude Himmelfarb <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-History-Old-Critical-Reappraisals/dp/0674013840/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ETD1GRVXJLI2&amp;keywords=the+new+history+and+the+old&amp;qid=1703025694&amp;s=books&amp;sprefix=the+new+history+and+the+old%2Cstripbooks%2C87&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> two decades ago, “This process of [religious] accommodation has since gone on apace, so that today many mainline churches offer little or no resistance to the prevailing culture. On the contrary, some are very much part of it, priding themselves on being cosmopolitan and sophisticated, undogmatic and uncensorious.”
Thus the sacred has been wiped away, leaving us all alone with our subjective senses of self, catered to by a broad welfare state. Are we happier? Will that problem be cured by government?
Of course not.
It can only be cured by a return to community. Historically, that community means religious community, which is why it continues to be so sad to see religious leaders playing around the edges of conciliation with value systems that undermine sacredness at every turn.
On Monday, according to the vast majority of the legacy media, Pope Francis apparently decided that it was fine for priests to bless same-sex couples. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/briefing/texas-border-law-vatican-same-sex-relationships.html#:~:text=The%20Vatican%20announced%20today%20that,pastoral%20and%20less%20rigid%20church." target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Times</a> said this move was “his most definitive step yet to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to LGBTQ Catholics and more reflective of his vision of a more pastoral and less rigid church.”
If true, of course, that would mark a massive shift for the Catholic Church, which has held fast to the traditional teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman and that sexual union within marriage is the only morally permissible form of sexual union. The Church has held fast for thousands of years not only to the sanctity of marriage but also to the natural law philosophy inherent in that sanctity — a philosophy that says the world of God’s creation carries within it certain obvious rights and wrongs, teleological ends. Man and woman were created to become one flesh, this philosophy says, and creation is designed to end in the creation of new human life. 
Catholic philosopher Robert George has <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/08/what-marriage-isand-what-it-isnt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> this point further: “What is unique about marriage is that it truly is a comprehensive sharing of life, a sharing founded on the bodily union made uniquely possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman— a complementarity that makes it possible for two human beings to become, in the language of the Bible, one flesh, and thus possible for this one-flesh union to be the foundation of a relationship in which it is intelligible for two persons to bind themselves to each other in pledges of permanence, monogamy, and fidelity.”
It would certainly be a massive surrender for the Catholic Church to reject that teaching on behalf of a broader teaching that morality now encompasses sexual relationships of other sorts — particularly sexual relationships without any potential whatsoever for the creation of human life.
So, what did the Pope actually say?
His defenders say that he changed nothing. According to Catholic publication <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/did-the-pope-just-permit-gay-marriage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Pillar</a>, “Fiducia supplicans says clearly that that the Vatican does not intend to permit same-sex marriage, or anything that resembles it — and says that the Church does not actually have the power or authority to do that. While the text does create a framework for blessing gay couples, it says that those blessings should not be confused with marriage, or even with approval of same-sex unions, or homosexual activity.”
Fiducia suppplicans says blessings are a “pastoral resource to be valued rather than a risk or a problem” and they may be bestowed upon those persons who “although in a union that cannot be compared in any way to a marriage, desire to entrust themselves to the Lord and his mercy, to invoke his help, and to be guided to a greater understanding of his plan of love and truth.” Such blessings ought not be given in any circumstance resembling a sanctification of same-sex unions, says the Pope, and “there is no intention to legitimize anything.” Furthermore, says the document, the blessing ought to descend on those who “do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.”
But there is reason for the controversy. The document itself suggests that blessings should not be “subjected to too many moral prerequisites” and that priests ought not to “lose pastoral charity, which should permeate all our decisions and attitudes” and to avoid being “judges who only deny, reject, and exclude.” Furthermore, it is not clear whether the Church will crack down on liturgical blessings it does not approve in the document. 
The Pope, in other words, is being vague, and others are supposed to clean up for him. My friend Larry O’Connor has <a href="https://twitter.com/LarryOConnor/status/1736823331616121325" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a good rundown</a> of his interpretation of the latest missive. Here is what he writes: &#8220;I am not in full communion with the Church. As such, I am required to abstain from partaking in the Eucharist at Mass. I walk up to the altar with my arms crossed on my chest and the presiding priest offers me a blessing. He is not blessing the situation that I am in that keeps me from being in communion with the Church. He is offering me a priestly blessing so that I can continue my faith journey and move forward closer to Christ despite my situation. This is exactly what the Vatican has confirmed the pastors may do for individuals who have same sex attraction and are also not in full communion with the Church because of their situation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Some thoughts on the hysteria and lies surrounding the Vatican&#39;s statement on blessings today. 
First&#8230; Read <a href="https://twitter.com/EdMorrissey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EdMorrissey</a>.
Done? Good. Now&#8230;
If you are a Christian but not Catholic, then your religion might not have formal &quot;blessings&quot; as part of your rites, liturgy or faith…
&mdash; L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) <a href="https://twitter.com/LarryOConnor/status/1736823331616121325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But is that all the Pope is doing? Because Larry isn’t approaching the altar as a member of a same-sex couple. He is approaching individually. Of course religions should bless the sinner but hate the sin. But when a same-sex couple approaches a priest for a blessing as a same-sex couple, the distinction falls away. The Pope here is not allowing blessing for individuals who participate in same-sex unions — every traditional religion allows sinners to receive blessings individually, so far as I’m aware. He is apparently, instead, greenlighting blessing same-sex couples as couples, then pretending it doesn’t mean anything so long as the blessing isn’t an outright sanctification of the same-sex relationship.
Clearly that’s how the Left is reading it. Rep. James Martin, a radical Left-wing Catholic, <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1736752056688373983" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a>, “The new declaration opens the door to nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples, something that had been previously off-limits for bishops, priests and deacons. Along with many priests, I will now <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1736752058055770141" target="_blank" rel="noopener">be delighted</a> to bless my friends in same-sex unions.”
So, why ought we to care? We ought to care because when historical pillars of Western tradition including natural law begin to carve away at those pillars in the name of tolerance and diversity, the entire edifice begins to crumble. That is a problem for religious believers of all traditional stripes.
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It’s not unique to Catholicism. On the same day the Pope issued his statement, celebrated by the New York Times, the Times issued a piece about the collapse of the United Methodist Church, riven by controversy over LGBTQ issues. As the Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/18/us/the-united-methodist-church-schism.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">describes</a>, “At issue for Methodists is the question of ordaining and marrying L.G.B.T.Q. people, a topic that has splintered many other Protestant denominations and which Methodists have been debating for years. … There were eight million Methodists in the United States in 2020, according to the U.S. Religion Census. Between large-scale departures and the broader trend of decline, Dr. Burge said, that number could drop by half in a decade. The exodus marks a calamitous decline for the broader tradition of mainline Protestantism, which once dominated the American religious, social and cultural landscape.”
And herein lies the problem: There is no substitute for traditional religion in the American landscape. And traditional religion requires skin in the game. The minute religion becomes merely a nonjudgmental “blessing” dumped on top of subjective self-glorification, religion loses its value.
And when religion loses its value, social society crumbles. We’re relegated to Vivek Murthy lecturing us with dancing unicorns who hand out prescriptions for social connection.

TODAY – Season 72

The Government Wants You To Listen To Dancing Unicorns

Ben Shapiro

Christianity

Church

Federal Government

Readers Pass

Surgeon General

Synagogue

California&#8217;s committee on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/reparations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reparations</a> for the descendants of slaves wants the state to apologize for the term &#8220;welfare queens.&#8221;
Part of the committee&#8217;s proposal for a reparations package to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> residents who descended from American slaves is for the state to issue a formal apology. Besides slavery, the proposal highlights a large number of policies and societal outcomes that negatively affected black people. Among them is then-Governor Ronald Reagan coining the term &#8220;welfare queens.&#8221;
&#8220;As California Governor (1967-1975), Ronald Reagan coined the term &#8216;welfare queen&#8217; as racist coding to promote his philosophy preferring a limited government,&#8221; the <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/ab3121-agenda9-ch16-recomm-apologize-05062023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">committee wrote</a>. &#8220;This terminology conjures stereotypes of single Black women as hypersexualized, aggressive, and dependent on government income with frivolous spending habits. Despite that the majority of welfare recipients are white, this racist label blamed African American women for shortfalls in the United States’ social safety net and suggested they were more responsible for their poverty than others. Then-Governor Reagan has also been reported to have made racist remarks regarding African delegates to the United Nations.&#8221;
But Reagan did not actually coin the term as Governor. The far-left publication <a href="https://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Slate</a>, in a 2013 article on the term and its origins, reported that Reagan did not actually originate the term. Reagan gave a speech in January 1976, nearly a year after he left the Governor&#8217;s mansion, describing a Chicago woman named Linda Taylor who had been collecting more than $150,000 a year in payments from various social safety net programs. It was the Chicago Tribune who highlighted Taylor&#8217;s lavish lifestyle, and dubbed her the &#8220;welfare queen.&#8221;
Besides an apology for &#8220;welfare queens,&#8221; the reparations panel recommends that any apology from the state &#8220;must also include a censure of the gravest barbarities carried out on behalf of the State by its representative officers, governing bodies, and the people.&#8221; Those injustices include:
<ul>
<li>A former Confederate serving as the first acting President of the University of California</li>
<li>California not passing any anti-slavery laws, despite being admitted to the Union as a free state</li>
<li>Confederate monuments</li>
<li>Zoning ordinances targeting black people</li>
<li>Suppressing the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s</li>
<li>Developing oil and gas projects and building hazardous waste plants near majority-black neighborhoods</li>
<li>Terminating affirmative action programs in public employment</li>
<li>Racial disparities in the child welfare system, law enforcement, the prison population, jury service, health care, the number of black physicians and licensed attorneys</li>
<li>Licensing requirements excluding black people from skilled jobs</li>
</ul>
The report is headlined by its proposal for direct payments to black resident of California. According to the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-reparations-task-force-approves-plan-giving-up-to-1-2-million-to-each-black-resident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">final report</a>, black communities impacted by mass incarceration and over-policing aligning with the national War on Drugs could receive about $115,260 per person, or $2,352 each year they lived in California from 1971-2020.
Panel members said black residents impacted by lending and zoning redlining by banks between 1933 and 1977 could receive $3,366 each year they resided in California, capping at $148,099. Another method created by the panel calculated gaps between black and white “housing wealth” at $145,847 per person.
Other alleged injustices and discriminations in health were estimated at $13,619 per person for each year lived in California.
Based on a New York Times analysis, a black person living in California for 71 years — the average life expectancy of Black residents in California in 2021 — could receive up to $1.2 million. Some economists projected to The Associated Press that California could owe more than $800 billion in reparations, which more than doubles the state’s annual budget.
Brandon Drey contributed to this report

Ronald Reagan

California’s Reparations Committee Wants State To Apologize For Ronald Reagan Coining ‘Welfare Queens.’ Except, He Didn’t.

California's Reparations Committee Wants State To Apologize For Ronald Reagan Coining 'Welfare Queens.' Except, He Didn't.

Blacks

California

Reparations

Former WWE wrestler Ted Dibiase Jr., the son of Ted &#8220;The Million Dollar Man&#8221; DiBiase Sr., has been charged with fraud and theft in connection with a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mississippi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mississippi</a> welfare scandal that misappropriated millions of dollars in federal safety-net funds.
According to a federal indictment authorities unsealed on Thursday, authorities charged DiBiase Jr., 40, along with co-conspirators, for allegedly fraudulently obtaining federal funds — including from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — using the funds intended for low-income families and individuals for their benefit.
&#8220;DiBiase allegedly used these federal funds to buy a vehicle and a boat, and for the down payment on the purchase of a house, among other expenditures,&#8221; the DOJ said in a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-professional-wrestler-charged-theft-millions-dollars-federal-funds-intended-needy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news release</a>.
DiBiase Jr. wrestled with the WWE until 2013. Fans of the sports entertainment network best know him for his role as one of the three members of &#8220;The Legacy,&#8221; which included Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes.
Authorities also named John Davis, the Mississippi Department of Human Services executive director, Christi Webb, the head of the Human Resource Center of North Mississippi Inc., and Nancy New, who ran the Mississippi Community Education Center, in the alleged scheme.
According to the Justice Department, Davis directed the Mississippi Department of Human Services to subgrant federal funds to the nonprofit organizations operated by Webb and New through &#8220;sham&#8221; contracts to the various people and entities to deliver social services.
At least five contacts were awarded to DiBiase&#8217;s companies, Priceless Ventures LLC and Familiae Orientem LLC, which authorities said the former wrestler &#8220;did not provide and did not intend to provide&#8221; such social services.
Federal authorities charged DiBiase with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, six counts of wire fraud, two counts of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, and four counts of money laundering.
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If convicted, DiBiase faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for the conspiracy count, a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count, and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and for each count of money laundering.
DiBiase&#8217;s lawyer has not responded to media requests for comment.
The case dates back to early 2020, when New and her son, former Mississippi Department of Human Services executive director John Davis, and three others were charged with diverting welfare money to items such as drug rehabilitation for former pro wrestler Brett DiBiase.
According to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-wwe-wrestler-charged-theft-millions-from-mississippi-welfare-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>, DiBiase Sr. founded the &#8220;Heart of Davis Ministry&#8221; in 1999, which allegedly received more than $2.1 million in welfare funds from the state of Mississippi after the Department of Human Services hired his son, Brett, as the deputy administrator.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services then sued the DiBiase family, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, and others, to recover $20 million in &#8220;squandered&#8221; funds, which is considered the biggest fraud case in state history, Fox News reported.
Favre told Fox News in October 2022 that the media &#8220;unjustly smeared&#8221; him, adding he had &#8220;done nothing wrong.&#8221;

Ted DiBiase Jr.

Former WWE Wrestler Ted Dibiase Jr. Charged In Mississippi Welfare Program Scheme

Crime

Department of Justice

Mississippi

U.S.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) and other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/house-democrats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House Democrats</a> strongly objected to the renaming of a subcommittee because the new name contained the term “welfare.”
During a procedural <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfOse-LbCE8&amp;t=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> of the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, a number of Democratic members asked why the “Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support” would be renamed the “Subcommittee on Work and Welfare.” Republican leaders, noting that the name of the subcommittee has changed five times in the past three decades, said that the shift reflected the urgency of addressing labor shortages by promoting workforce participation. Democrats nevertheless accused them of racially motivated intentions.
“I find it amazing that this committee would deliberately add a pejorative to the names of the subcommittees,” Moore remarked. “It is not true that denying people benefits would enable them to escape poverty &#8211; no. The American Rescue Plan is what kept people who were poor from falling into deep, deep poverty.”
Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO) responded that “the focus that we are going to have is to try to uplift people out of poverty” and contended that “the best way to uplift people out of poverty is with work.” When Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) asked whether Smith was trying to “shame people” who accept welfare, Smith responded that he had difficulty with taking the concern seriously given the rhetorical manipulation advanced by Democrats.
“This is clearly about the words and definitions,” he added. “Your party is one that we don’t know if you can say man or woman, birthing person or mother. It’s clearly about work and welfare.”
Democrats have indeed provoked controversy by using the term “birthing people&#8221; in official capacities, including the first budget proposal <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-budget-proposal-refers-to-mothers-as-birthing-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offered</a> by President Joe Biden. The purpose of the change was to support those who identify as transgender or “nonbinary,” although opponents contend that the phrase is demeaning toward women.
Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) concurred with Moore that the name change has racial implications. “As an African American and ranking member of this subcommittee, what was ‘Family Support,’ I want to record my strong opposition to the change of the title ‘Work and Welfare.’ It is my hope that this title was not intended to be racially offensive, but in reality it really is,” he commented. “The term ‘welfare’ is a deeply pejorative term in our country that many people use to describe individuals who want to game the system.”
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) called the conversation “silly” and said that the committee had more urgent matters to address. “It seems to me a bit of a fabricated controversy,” he remarked. “I hope we can get beyond this and get to the work that needs to get done.”
Moore emphatically insisted that the name change was malevolent and accused Smith of prejudice. “Ronald Reagan really used it exclusively to describe the ‘welfare queen’ who had numerous names, Social Security numbers, different husbands, different welfare checks,” she said. “You know doggone well that it has not changed to be the dog whistle that it was there. It’s a foghorn at this point. And you know, Mr. Chairman, that the intent of this change, however many times it is changed, is to cast aspersions on the people who are served.”
Moore added that she should wear her “welfare queen tiara” to future meetings. “We know what the intent of the use of this word is,” she continued. “You’re telling us right now that the whole focus of this subcommittee is going to be demonizing particularly women who have children, and I don’t appreciate it.”
As noted by Smith and other members of the committee, labor shortages have increased the urgency among lawmakers to address welfare reform. Even as there exist roughly 10.5 million job openings and 5.7 million unemployed individuals across the economy, according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unemployment-plummets-in-december-as-federal-reserve-vows-more-rate-hikes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, families with neither parent working can receive welfare benefits worth more than six figures per year in multiple states, according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/some-families-with-no-one-working-can-receive-up-to-six-figures-of-welfare-in-three-states">study</a> from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.

House Democrats Speak On Child Benefits Of Build Back Better Act

House Democrats: The Term ‘Welfare’ Is A ‘Pejorative’ And ‘Dog Whistle’

Democrats Accuse Republicans Of Using 'Welfare' As A 'Pejorative' In Renaming Subcommittee

Congress

House Democrats

House Republicans

Racism

Families of four with neither parent working can receive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/welfare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">welfare</a> benefits worth in excess of six figures per year in Washington, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, according to a study from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
A previous analysis from the conservative think tank found that federal supplemental unemployment benefits, food stamp expansions, child tax credit payments, and other benefits offered in the aftermath of the lockdown-induced recession could exceed $120,000 in multiple states as <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">labor market</a> tensions were exacerbated by the handouts.
Even with the expiration of the supplemental programs, the more recent <a href="https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Paying-Americans-Not-to-Work.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> found that unemployment insurance and the “dramatic recent expansion of ObamaCare subsidies” can exceed the national median income in 24 states for families with two parents and two children, according to the analysis, which was completed by University of Chicago economics professor Casey Mulligan and Heritage Foundation research fellow EJ Antoni.
“The federal government and the states offer a wide array of more than two dozen programs that provide cash assistance or in-kind benefits to low-income families. These ‘safety net programs’ are designed to keep families out of poverty,” the authors wrote. “But the expansion of assistance, especially in subsidized health insurance to families with children and no parents working, can mean that families can earn as much or more income from receiving government assistance than the median household does from working. Unemployment insurance benefits are time limited, but for the period when the benefits are provided, returning to work may not pay for many households.”
Such families in Washington can receive more than $122,000, while families in Massachusetts and New Jersey can reap more than $117,000 and $108,000 in annualized benefits respectively. Citizens of states such as Pennsylvania, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Kentucky can receive more than $80,000, roughly equaling or surpassing the median value of wages and benefits earned by electricians, firefighters, and secondary school teachers.
Many states do not subject unemployment benefits to payroll taxes, producing an implicit advantage over earning a salary. A family of four in Massachusetts with both parents out of work can “receive a maximum annualized unemployment benefit” of almost $104,000, which is equivalent to more than $112,000 in pre-tax earned income.
Labor force participation failed to recover over the past two years, worsening a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-continue-to-opt-out-of-the-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decades-long trend</a> of low engagement in the job market and increasing inflationary pressures as businesses raised prices to fill positions. The metric dropped from 63.4% in February 2020 to 60.2% in April 2020 alone amid government lockdowns and business closures, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor force participation climbed to 62.1% as of November 2022.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-reserve-chair-jerome-powell-discusses-future-slowdown-of-rate-hikes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remarked</a> that the workforce “participation gap” is largely a result of “excess retirements” that occurred beyond “what would have been expected from population aging alone,” even as young people largely return to the job market. “In the labor market, demand for workers far exceeds the supply of available workers,” he commented while discussing the central bank’s recent efforts to roll back monetary stimulus. “Thus, another condition we are looking for is the restoration of balance between supply and demand in the labor market.”

Partial view on a US Treasury payment check

Some Families With No One Working Can Receive Up To Six Figures Of Welfare In Three States

Economy

Jobs

Unemployment

The <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/white-house" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House</a> announced a plan on Tuesday to “end hunger” through the expansion of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/welfare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">welfare</a> programs.
A <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/27/executive-summary-biden-harris-administration-national-strategy-on-hunger-nutrition-and-health/">press release</a> noted that the United States had not ended food insecurity since President Richard Nixon held the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health in 1969. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden is slated to <a href="https://health.gov/our-work/nutrition-physical-activity/white-house-conference-hunger-nutrition-and-health">resurrect the event</a>.
“There is no silver bullet to address these complex issues, and there is no overnight fix,” the White House explained. “Making progress requires collective, sustained action and mobilization across every segment of society. That is why President Biden announced a goal of ending hunger and increasing healthy eating and physical activity by 2030 so fewer Americans experience diet-related diseases — while reducing related health disparities.”
Among other initiatives, the White House intends to increase access to free school meals by expanding the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) program and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility, piloting medically tailored meals via Medicaid, and increasing Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries’ access to nutrition and obesity counseling. The plan likewise contains a push toward physical activity, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) planning to expand the State Physical Activity and Nutrition Program nationwide.
“Too many families don’t know where they’re going to get their next meal,” Biden said in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=53&amp;v=AU5BeZ3Gtuc&amp;feature=emb_logo">video message</a> discussing the conference. “There are too many empty chairs around the kitchen table because a loved one was taken by heart disease, diabetes, or other diet-oriented diseases, which are some of the leading causes of death in our country. And the toll of these diseases is not distributed equally — it’s higher in certain racial and ethnic groups.”
Price levels between August 2021 and August 2022 rose 8.3%, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/august-inflation-report-shows-several-nasty-surprises-biden-claims-victory-anyway">prices for food</a> increasing 11.4% over the same period. The cost of food at home, a category that includes grocery store or supermarket food purchases, rose 0.7% from the previous month. According to a <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bank-of-america-study-finds-84-of-employers-now-say-offering-financial-wellness-tools-helps-increase-employee-retention-301634130.html">report</a> from Bank of America, roughly 71% of Americans “feel the cost of living is outpacing growth in their salary or wages.”
Meanwhile, Biden has signed multiple federal stimulus packages during his tenure, including the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/collections/bidenomics">economists argue</a> have contributed to inflationary pressures and low labor market participation.
The announcement of the expanded federal hunger initiatives comes days after Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-vows-cancer-moonshot-but-heres-what-his-own-cancer-charity-spent-on-research">unveiled</a> the Cancer Moonshot initiative with the intent of creating “a cancer research and care system that most people think we already have, but don’t realize until they already have cancer that we don’t.” The announcement came exactly 60 years after President John F. Kennedy’s historic vow to land astronauts on the Moon.
However, the Biden Cancer Initiative, a charity launched by the Biden family in 2017, raised nearly $5 million and spent more than $3 million on staff salaries during its first two years, according to a <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/11/14/biden-cancer-initiative-spent-millions-on-payroll-zero-on-research-report/">report</a> from The New York Post. The group spent $56,738 on conferences and $59,356 on travel during the first year — figures which swelled to $742,953 and $97,149 in the second year.

President Biden Visits The JFK Library In Boston To Deliver Remarks On Fighting Cancer

Biden Announced A Plan To ‘End Hunger.’ Food Inflation Is Still In The Double Digits.

Biden Announces Plan To 'End Hunger,' Resurrects Nixon-Era Conference

Joe Biden

White House

The federal government drastically overestimates income inequality in the United States by failing to account for certain <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/welfare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">welfare</a> programs and income <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/taxes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taxes</a> on the wealthiest earners, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Cato Institute.
The <a href="https://www.cato.org/study/myth-american-income-inequality">analysis</a>, written by Cato Institute adjunct scholar John Early, says that official statistics fail to account for more than two-thirds of transfer payments provided to low-income households and do not consider income loss from taxes, which average 35% of income for the wealthiest quintile of taxpayers. Poverty counts are 10 times higher than the true figure, while income inequality is overestimated by a factor of four, according to the study.
The Census Bureau’s official accounting method “excludes $1.9 trillion given to households in transfer payments and pretends that the $4.4 trillion that households pay in taxes is really income,” Early explained in an interview with The Daily Wire, “even though they usually never even see that money and can certainly never use it for the benefit of their families.”
If officials were to calculate income inequality while considering more transfer programs — including food stamp debit cards, bills paid by Medicaid, and checks that provide refundable tax credits in excess of tax liabilities to low-income households — earned income in the bottom quintile would rise by 700%, while earned income in the second quintile would rise by 70%, the study says.
Meanwhile, Early says the Census Bureau neglects to consider that only 7% of income in the bottom quintile is lost due to taxes, while 35% of income is lost in the highest quintile.
“Too many political and career bureaucrats ignore and even deny the existence of this prima facie evidence because if the data show a large gap of inequality, that gap will justify their existence to administer money to fill the gap,” Early, who served twice as assistant commissioner at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, continued. “Then, because the new spending is not counted as income, they are able to demand still more spending. The cycle is repeated over and over again.”
Indeed, many lawmakers have cited earnings disparity as justification for more federal social programs. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1156386723955466240">argued</a> for a 70% marginal income tax for earnings above $10 million per year to “stem runaway income inequality,” which purportedly accrues as “wealth begins to automatically compound at obscene rates for the extremely rich.” Last year, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1416066195464273929">contended</a> that “massive wealth and income inequality” justified passing a reconciliation bill through Congress.
The study nevertheless argues that welfare programs’ introduction of incentives to work less place upward pressure on income inequality, especially as others toward the top of the income spectrum increase their productivity through education and more rigorous work. Other social trends, such as the reality that highly educated earners tend to marry one another, further contribute to reported income inequality.
“That added spending, of course, sends yet more money to the lower-income households while taxes take more from the higher incomes. And, as a side effect, this process enriches those who administer the programs,” Early added. “A whole industry feeds off these growing transfer payments, and it has a vested interest in continuing to use methods that belie the vast improvement of wellbeing for almost all Americans.”

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Study Says That The Federal Government Overestimates Income Inequality

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Progressivism

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/denver" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Denver</a> plans to dole out free phones and $12,000 apiece to 140 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/l-a-city-officials-ok-ban-on-homeless-camps-near-schools-daycares-activist-breaches-chamber-barrier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homeless</a> women and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-senate-passes-transgender-refuge-bill-eroding-parental-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transgender and “non-binary”</a> people over the next year as part of a bigger partnership with a local nonprofit, according to a report.
The money, which totals about $1.7 million, will come out of a $2 million fund from the federal American Rescue Plan Act under a plan the city council approved, <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2022/09/16/universal-basic-income-homeless-denver?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Axios</a>. The money comes with no strings attached and makes Denver the latest Democratic-run city to experiment with universal basic income.
“The Denver Basic Income Project is an opportunity to explore how the philanthropic community and the private sector can augment public support for those living in poverty, particularly our unhoused neighbors, and extend that hand up to stability,&#8217; Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said in a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/606b8fde23ab78621244f991/t/60907335c834b772f038259b/1620079413538/DBI_NewsReleaseLaunch_April_29_21_F-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>.
https://twitter.com/CampfireColo/status/1569708732694425600?s=20&#038;t=dnLKGioCUzsjWIYZAyFlqQ
The city’s funds will be passed through the Denver Basic Income Project, a nonprofit that plans to raise some $9 million to hand out to an estimated 820 homeless women and transgender and non-binary people.
Denver Basic Income Project founder Mark Donovan told Axios most of the funding for the effort has come from charities, including the Colorado Health Foundation and the Denver Foundation. Donovan’s group will select those eligible for the stipends.
“As excited as we are about it, this isn&#8217;t something you can call in and apply for,&#8221; Angie Nelson, deputy director of the city’s Homelessness Resolution Fund, told the site.
Denver has an estimated 3,500 homeless people and just 2,000 spaces in shelters, according to <a href="https://denverhomelessoutloud.org/myths-and-reality-of-homelessness/#:~:text=Denver%20has%20at%20least%203%2C445%20homeless%20people%20and,than%20allowed%2C%20mental%20health%20concerns%2C%20and%20much%20more." target="_blank" rel="noopener">DenverHomelessOutLoud.org</a>. Many camp in tents in public spaces, which is a nuisance to businesses and residents.
Although city officials deny it, many suspect the Mile-High City’s homeless explosion is tied to its legalization of marijuana a decade ago. Tom Luehrs, executive director of Denver’s St. Francis Center, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/us/colorado-survey-suggests-legal-marijuana-attracting-homeless/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told CNN in 2018</a> that marijuana was drawing transients to Denver and into his homeless shelter.
“We’ve seen that over the past several years,” he said.
The group plans to give 260 people $6,500 up front, then $500 per month for the next 11 months; 260 people $1,000 per month for a year; and 300 people $50 per month as part of an experiment on the effectiveness of guaranteed basic income. All participants will get a free phone and service for a year.
The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless will monitor how recipients spend the money, as well as help them find places to stay.
Nelson said the number of homeless women in Denver has tripled since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. She said transgender and non-binary homeless people often struggle to find safe and “inclusive” shelters.
Chicago and Los Angeles have similar universal basic income programs. The Windy City is spending $30 million to give 5,000 poor people $500 a month and L.A. started a program last month that will dole out $1,000 per month to 1,000 people for three years.

Homeless camp cleanup

Major City To Dole Out $12,000, Free Phones To Homeless Trans, ‘Non-Binary’ People

Major City To Dole Out $12,000, Free Phones To Homeless Trans, 'Non-Binary' People

Democrats

Denver

Homelessness

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