Two Ohio Women, ‘lifelong Democrats’, voted for Trump

TheIntellectualist

Two Ohio Women, ‘lifelong Democrats’, voted for Trump

In October, CNN did a special on two Ohio women who intended to vote for President Donald Trump instead of Sec. Hillary Clinton because in the words of one of them, Mrs. Clinton was “conniving“.

 

Sixth months later, one of the women, Krista Shockey, is shocked to learn that the President intends to make massive cuts to Social Security disability and food stamps, two government programs that she depends on to survive.

It’s my only income. I couldn’t live. There’s no way I could go back to work. I’ve got a lot of problems. I’m crippled in my feet, knees, back, hands,” said Ms. Shockey.

CNN Money also followed up on Trump supporters in America’s “poorest town”, Beattyville, Kentucky. Beattyville has received a lot of media attention due to its endemic poverty that seems to symbolize the hopeless of American’ rust belt.

In 2016, Beattyville voted overwhelmingly for the President.

One of its residents, Barbara Puckett, has been on Social Security disability since the 1990’s due to multiple sclerosis. When asked how she felt about Mr. Trump’s supposed cuts, “I am still happy with President Trump.”

The President’s budget calls for $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade, a 21% budget reduction for the USDA (they administer SNAP), and $70 Billion from SSDI over the next decade among other draconian cuts as well.

Related:

CNN Money

I voted for Trump. Now he wants to cut the aid I need

by Heather Long          May 24, 2017

Krista Shockey voted for President Trump in November. Now she’s one of the people who might get hurt under his plan to cut safety net programs for the poor and disabled.

Shockey is on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a program to help low-income Americans who are disabled. The monthly payment is just over $700 a month.

“It’s my only income,” Shockey told CNNMoney in the fall, when we first met her at Diner 23 in Waverly, a small town in southern Ohio that’s seen better days. “I couldn’t live” without it.

She was stunned to hear the president wants to downsize SSI. She hadn’t heard about it until CNNMoney called her.

When releasing Trump’s budget Tuesday, the White House hailed it as a “taxpayer first” plan. Trump’s goal is to get millions of people off welfare and into full-time jobs. For Shockey, that won’t be easy.

“There’s no way I could go back to work,” Shockey said this week. “I’ve got a lot of problems. I’m crippled in my feet, knees, back, hands.”

Trump has proposed dramatic decreases in funding for food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, student loans, welfare (known as TANF) and disability programs like SSI and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

“Honestly, I haven’t been following much (news). I’ve got so much going on with my family. My mother died,” she said.

CNNMoney reached out to about a dozen Trump voters who either rely on government aid to live or who work closely with the poor. Most were surprised.

Related: Trump’s first budget: Trillions in cuts

Krista Shockey at Diner 23 in Waverly, Ohio. She relies on Supplemental Security Income.

Surprise at Trump’s proposed cuts

For instance, America’s “poorest white town” — Beattyville, Kentucky — voted overwhelmingly for Trump. Any cuts to the safety net would be felt acutely by its residents: 57% of households in Beattyville receive food stamps and 58% get disability payments from the government.

“I am still happy with President Trump,” says Barbara Puckett, who lives in Beattyville and has been on Social Security disability since the late 1990s because of sclerosis. But she says she would worry if the budget becomes law and she loses her benefit.

For now Trump’s budget is just a proposal and Puckett’s benefits are still the same.

William Owens is a pastor in Beattyville. He’s the type of person who pitches in wherever he’s needed. In addition to leading a church and youth center, he’s also a volunteer fire chief and chairman of the local school board.

Owens, a Trump supporter, said the president just wants the states and local governments to have more control over how welfare money is spent.

Related: Trump’s budget: Big gifts for the rich, big cuts for the poor

Some Trump voters embrace the cuts

What Owens is referring to is the thinking of Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director. A former state lawmaker in South Carolina, Mulvaney is a big believer that states are better at crafting safety net programs than the federal government.

“We would see this program come down from Washington with all of these instructions on how to use it, and say, goodness gracious, this won’t work in South Carolina,” Mulvaney said.

William Owens is a pastor in Beattyville, Kentucky.

Pastor Owens has made it his life’s mission to lift people out of poverty. He runs the Kentucky Mountain Mission, which has a bowling alley and gym where a lot of teens hang out after school. He can see both sides of the debate on government aid.

He grew up in an extremely poor family as one of 14 kids. They got “about $300 a month” in Social Security because his father was disabled and couldn’t work. He works with families today that truly need the aid, but he also sees some that get dependent on it.

“I think some of it should go away,” he told CNNMoney in January when we visited him. “I believe in a hand up and not a hand out.”

Some people on food stamps do work

Any cuts to food stamps and Medicaid will hurt Tyra Johnson’s family.

Tyra Johnson also lives in Beattyville. She’s a 39-year-old mom who receives food stamps.

When CNNMoney reached Johnson Tuesday, she was at work. She’s earns $8 an hour as a housekeeper at a hotel. She’s “not earning enough yet” to get off food stamps.

Johnson isn’t alone. Nearly a third of families on food stamps have a working member, according to an analysis of government data by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. They don’t earn enough money to be able to afford to put food on the table and get out of severe poverty.

“As of right now, I don’t know what I would do” if Trump cuts food stamps and Medicaid, she says. Her two children also receive government-funded health care.

‘I’m still trying to process all of this’

Johnson was one of the few in Beattyville who did not vote for Trump. But she’s actually doing what he wants: She found a job recently and has come off some government aid. After a car wreck, she received $700 a month from Social Security Disability Insurance for a long time. That aid is gone now, but she says she still needs food stamps.

About 44 million Americans are on food stamps today. Enrollment spiked during the Great Recession as people lost their jobs. It has come down a bit since the peak in 2013, but it’s still far higher than the 26 million who were in the program before the financial crisis hit.

“Common sense dictates that programs like these return to a sustainable, pre-Obama trajectory,” says Oren Cass, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

But advocates for the poor say a big part of the reason so many people remain on food stamps now is people like Johnson who have jobs but don’t earn enough to support a family.

Trump’s budget isn’t a done deal.

Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas has already called the plan “basically dead on arrival.” Congress has the final say on what programs gets more or less money. Lawmakers it will almost certainly make changes to what Trump has proposed.

But for many in Trump country, Johnson sums up the feeling right now: “I’m still trying to process all of this.”

Comments:
NotaRepublican

I’m sure she too will sing a different tune once reality hits home. Terrible how some people vote against their own interests.

dagit1902

all I can say is they knew what they signed up for! trump has been an evil lying crook and proved it even before he ran for president. Fact not alt facts.

boxsterman

She is STILL happy? Hmmm. Pain is a patient teacher. How are you going to feel when you have to get out of bed and work?

Gaberax

Blissfully ignorant before the election. Blissfully ignorant during the election. Blissfully ignorant after the election. Happily, they have their god.

Whatever2017

The woman in pink, may just as well have addmited that she didn’t vote Obama, because she is a racist. Not ready for what?

Kahe

Old but not wise. They both cut off their noses to spite their faces. It is so sad that they allowed one man’s hate, envy and jealousy of another man cloud their judgment and now they are up the creek without a paddle.

ronmch20

Oh c’mon, you didn’t vote for Obama simply because he’s black. Hope you feel better for voting for Trump because he’s white while he and the Republicans do their best to end social programs enacted by Democrats that you depend on. You deserve the reaming you’re going to get.

She says an Obama Administration program saved her home but she wouldn’t vote for him. Go figure. Guess ditching blind bigotry is a near impossibility for these folks.

mamon

these have got to be the stupidest women on the planet they cut their own noses to spite their face they are racist and sexist and don’t want to see minorities and women succeed and yet they don’t know where their next meal will come from they have benefited from democrats and yet voted for this trainwreck they deserve every bad thing that trump does and I don’t feel sorry for them in the least

pincessdi

I really do feel sorry for these people. They have no education, religion that causes nothing nothing but fear. There are no jobs. Now most people look down on them. You don’t realize that this is generation after generation of inbreeding. People having to quit school at 16 to help the household. What they don’t realize is that it is going to get much, much worse. Many of these people are going to die as a result of the evil of 45. Don’t criticize them until you walk a mile in their shoes. And, if you are not a millionaire, you may be in trouble too.

Author: John Hanno

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Bogan High School. Worked in Alaska after the earthquake. Joined U.S. Army at 17. Sergeant, B Battery, 3rd Battalion, 84th Artillery, 7th Army. Member of 12 different unions, including 4 different locals of the I.B.E.W. Worked for fortune 50, 100 and 200 companies as an industrial electrician, electrical/electronic technician.

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