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disaster relief
'Abominable': Trump and GOP Float Tying Los Angeles Wildfire Aid to Debt Ceiling
"It's outrageous that Trump and House Republicans are threatening to withhold recovery aid if their conditions aren't met," said a leader in the Working Families Party.
Jan 13, 2025
The deputy national director of the Working Families Party had sharp words for a group of House Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump, who, according to Politicoreporting published Monday, discussed tying fire relief for California to the politically charged issue of increasing the debt ceiling.
The reporting comes as California continues to battle fires in the Los Angeles area that have consumed tens of thousands of acres and left over 20 people dead. The scale of the destruction could make them, collectively, the costliest wildfire disaster in U.S. history, a climate scientist told the Los Angeles Times last week.
"The Palisades wildfires have destroyed homes, schools, and businesses and left thousands of families without a roof over their heads. It's outrageous that Trump and House Republicans are threatening to withhold recovery aid if their conditions aren't met," said Working Families Party deputy national director Joe Dinkin in a statement Monday.
"Every Republican should be on the record denouncing this abominable plan," he added.
Per Politico, nearly two dozen House Republicans attended a dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club over the weekend where the option was discussed.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Fla.), who was not a part of the conversation but did later confirm the conversation, must deal with the looming debt cliff, which is set to be reached sometime in mid-January, and he faces obstacles within his own party. In December, fractures appeared in the GOP when fiscal hawks refused to back legislation that Trump supported that would have raised the debt limit.
Johnson has also said he would try to lift the debt limit by including it in a reconciliation bill full of President-elect Donald Trump's legislative priorities, though this could run afoul with those same fiscal hawks. Some House Republicans reportedly brought up the pitfalls of this option during discussions at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
Of the potential move to link fire relief to the debt ceiling, Politico reported: "The Sunday night discussions prove Republicans are desperately looking for a plan before the nation is due to exhaust its borrowing authority—though Democrats and some Republicans are sure to balk at the prospect of linking disaster relief dollars to a politically charged exercise like extending the debt limit."
Congress recently passed a spending bill that included funding for natural disaster relief, but scope of the destruction in California has some officials wondering if more may be needed, Politico reports.
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'True Ebenezer Scrooge Stuff': Final Spending Bill Omitted SNAP Theft Protections
"Ending the process to replace stolen benefits for victims will also make it more difficult to track and stop the individuals behind these crimes, because fewer people will report the crime," wrote one food assistance advocate.
Dec 24, 2024
Congressional budget watchers concerned with food insecurity are lamenting the loss of a provision impacting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the final spending deal Congress passed Saturday, which very narrowly averted a government shutdown. The measure is a continuing resolution that will keep the government funded through mid-March at current levels, and includes funding for a few select priorities, like disaster relief.
The final bill did not extend protections for victims of SNAP benefit theft after it was axed from an original spending deal—a move that Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, called "true Ebenezer Scrooge stuff." Kogan laid blame at the feet of billionaire Elon Musk, who whipped up opposition to the earlier, bipartisan version of the spending deal.
Under the original deal, the SNAP benefit theft protections would have been continued for another four years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
SNAP benefits, a far-reaching social program that helps low-income Americans buy groceries, is vulnerable to theft through "skimming"—a practice where thieves can take advantage of the relatively low security on SNAP EBT cards by hiding devices in payment machines that allow them to clone card information, including users' PINs.
"Today, I'm thinking about the low-income families across the country who are about to discover that the SNAP benefits they were counting on to buy groceries were stolen after 11:59 pm last night—and who no longer have a way to get those benefits replaced because of this decision," wrote Katie Bergh, senior policy analyst on the food assistance team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, on Saturday.
Congress approved federal funding for states to reimburse the stolen benefits in 2022. A couple of states reinstate skimmed SNAP funds using state money, according to NBC. Federal funds have so far replaced $53.5 million in stolen SNAP benefits, a dollar amount that has impacted 115,596 households, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"Ending the process to replace stolen benefits for victims will also make it more difficult to track and stop the individuals behind these crimes, because fewer people will report the crime," wrote Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a statement Monday.
Cox said that omitting this protection will lessen SNAP benefits by roughly $1.5 billion over the next ten years, citing Congressional Budget Office estimates.
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Lo, the Poor Enlightened Billionaire!
Aug 29, 2015
Among the hundreds of billionaires and mega billionaires in the U.S., there are more than several enlightened people upset by our society's problems who could make big improvements.
The next step is breaking down a roadblock of sorts. A prominent, very rich businessman summed it up when he told me: "Ralph, we all know how to make a lot of money, but we don't have a clue as to what to do with it, including me." It is not as if these super-wealthy are contemplating their navels. Many give away lots of money but wonder if their giving is a stopgap. In contrast, others refrain from donating unless they can be assured that their philanthropic investments will likely deliver results.
It helps to distinguish between charity and justice - both noble causes worthy of donations. Charity ministers to the immediate, often desperate needs of vulnerable populations. Charities support soup kitchens and clinics, renovate or build educational buildings, add services for the elderly, provide medicines for the poor here and in developing countries, help local school systems under budget restraints, and quickly respond to tragedies with disaster relief here and abroad. All of these causes are worthwhile (when these services and donations reach the appropriate recipients).
Justice directly confronts the challenge of preventing people from ending up in vulnerable situations. What causes over 15 million children in the U.S. to go to bed hungry each night? Why don't we have universal public health care? Why aren't public colleges and universities tuition-free like high schools in the U.S. and most Western European countries? Why are our public works crumbling and creating unnecessary obstructions for disaster relief (reaching people stranded after hurricanes)?
Will charity ever begin to catch up with the consequences from corruption, self- preserving bureaucracies, man-made environmental damages, and governments indentured to avaricious special interests and concentrated corporate power? Not a chance.
Advocacy promoting justice seeks to prevent the causes of so much misery, institutional harm, poverty, and the loss of human life and potential. Repairing the wreckage of wars places huge demands on charity, and waging peace and negotiating arms control agreements places huge demands on justice.
Last fall, I proposed "Birth-Year Gifts to America," which the very wealthy could jumpstart with other Americans around the country. For example, people born in 1930, 1935, or 1937 would organize to support and endow a self-renewing nonprofit civic institution to improve the quality of life of future generations.
The steel magnate Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy created many organizations, including the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York (a major foundation dedicated to advancing science). His most memorable gift was funding the establishment of over 2,500 free libraries in as many communities throughout the country. He insisted, however, that the localities provide the land to give themselves a stake. Talk about a legacy!
In my proposal, I suggested twenty-five enduring ideas that could be gifted to our country and cover many needed societal improvements. Birth years for people seventy to ninety years of age have thousands of people of means who, whether they are religious or not, really do not believe that they can take it with them.
You can view the entire list, which may stimulate your birth-year project nationally, regionally, or locally, that advocates for justice through systemic creations or improvements of institutions here. For a copy, write to PO Box 19367, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Bringing together the billionaires who want to get things moving for a weekend roundtable could kickstart a new approach to meaningful and creative philanthropy. We would be pleased to host such a serious historic deliberation to escalate informed wishes into action.
Most progressives express disbelief that the very wealthy would ever support fundamental changes that would shift the power from the hands of the few to the hands of the many and create a much more equitable and prosperous society. We could have a culture that focuses on preventing problems through justice and not just reacting to the disasters and inequality caused by such problems through charity. A cynical view ignores that having the backing of majority public opinion and the financial support of the wealthy can produce positive results. (I strove to detail this potential in my book "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" - a work of realistic political fiction.)
Nearly a century ago, the brilliant philosopher/mathematician Alfred North Whitehead declared, "A great society is a society in which its men of business think greatly of their functions." Today, those heeding the vision of Senator Daniel Webster, who, before the Civil War, said: "Justice, Sir, is the great interest of man on Earth," will surprise their peers by moving from success to significance. They can begin this transition by connecting with advocates with decades-long experience seeking justice under dire conditions, with some success.
There are examples of the wealthy contributing to longstanding progressive improvements in society. Some wealthy philanthropists funded many activities focused on abolishing slavery and obtaining universal suffrage for women. A few rich families provided substantial financial backing for the Civil Rights Movement. In addition, numerous environmental groups today are reaping the benefits of wealthy supporters.
Now, with more wealthy individuals and families than ever,fundingh charity and justice has become more feasible.
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