The President surrounds himself with rich ‘leaders of industry types.’ He brings troops to Washington, D.C. to maintain order against perceived threats. As the economy tanks and families struggle he does little to help, preferring to let workers work more and harder to pull themselves out of poverty.
The President? Herbert Hoover, or course. Renowned as a philanthropist and do-gooder before an after his four years in office, as President he failed miserably, dramatically increasing the pain of the Great Depression – perhaps even helping to turn a steep recession into a historically harrowing ordeal.
Donald J. Trump will be president until Saturday, January 20, 2029. Like Hoover he surrounds himself with rich white guys, has troops on the streets of Washington every day and obviously doesn’t give half a used damn about ordinary Americans.
The year 2029 represents the worst year for impacts from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The slaughtering of food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and a score of other benefit programs will be in full effect that Fiscal Year [10/1/ 2028 till 9/30/2029].
Here in Missouri we need to plan on spending an extra $3.5 billion in state General Revenue funds to replace slashed federal dollars in 2029.
Only, Missouri won’t do that.
Remember, the used car selling governor remains committed not to helping struggling families but to helping billionaires get richer. While killing the income tax failed (for now) Mike Kehoe keeps saying Missouri is losing ground because our taxes are too high. It is considered possible by many of us policy wonks that Missouri – like a handful of other states – will simply end food stamps. And, place a limit on the number of those covered by Medicaid. So, a senior citizen in a nursing home must die before another qualified senior can get services.
What you think Missouri Republicans aren’t that cruel… Call me tomorrow and I’ll go over the list of bridges I have for sale.
The challenge this year is to prepare for that coming calamity:
- Educate the public on the order of magnitude increase in donations pantries and other food providers will need to replace the nutrition provided by food stamps. Basically, we’ll need the community yield of two Scouting For Food drives each week in metro St. Louis. That means every one must give seven or eight times what they do today.
- Remind people that MO HealthNet now covers one in six of our neighbors. Cuts will mean that we’ll all pay considerably more as hospitals and doctors cost-shift expenses to paying patients. (Don’t worry about prescriptions, most poor people won’t get them.)
- Prepare for the exodus of young working class families out of Missouri. Illinois and Iowa are expected to bite the bullet and maintain most of food stamps and Medicaid. That will make them better choices for raising families than Missouri.
The other week I mentioned the number of folks much older than me working jobs in Branson. Add in the attacks on immigrants who come here to work and, well, let’s hope AI based automation can open and close the local McDonalds as well as flip burgers.
We have history from 1929 and the early 1930’s to guide us – if the Republicans care to learn. I wouldn’t bet on that.
Glenn Koenen
About the header image: By 1930, St. Louis had the largest “Hooverville” in the nation. Now, after nearly a century, poverty and homelessness are again on the rise. Affordability is a crisis we all face, yet critical supports for American workers are being chipped away to funnel the wealth of the nation to very few of us. Is it outrageous to imagine the result of implementing the exact same 1920s Republican policies that led to the Great Depression?