{"id":138440,"date":"2019-03-27T19:56:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T01:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=138440"},"modified":"2019-03-27T19:56:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T01:56:40","slug":"all-american-citizens-are-equal-but-some-are-more-equal-than-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/27\/all-american-citizens-are-equal-but-some-are-more-equal-than-others.html","title":{"rendered":"All American citizens are equal, but some are more equal than others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember, these are American citizens.<\/p>\n

The Casa Ismael clinic is short on funds in part because of cuts in food stamps that hit about 1.3 million residents of Puerto Rico this month \u2014 a new crisis for an island still struggling from the effects of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. \u201cWe just don\u2019t have the money right now,\u201d Izquierdo, 56, said in an interview in the clinic\u2019s sparse first-floor office, where a chunk of ceiling tiles remains missing since the hurricane. Izquierdo pulled out a chart with each patient\u2019s name, annotated with the cost of his adult diapers for the month. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard. It is so unfair. That cut is going to kill us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The result is that “HIV-positive men with severe health complications” in the clinic get to sit in dirty diapers for hours because the clinic can’t afford to change them when soiled.<\/p>\n

The federal government provided additional food-stamp aid to Puerto Rico after the hurricane, but Congress missed the deadline for reauthorization in March as it focused on other issues before leaving for a week-long recess. Federal lawmakers have also been stalled by the Trump administration, which has derided the extra aid as unnecessary. Now, about 43 percent of Puerto Rico\u2019s residents are grappling with a sudden cut to a benefit they rely on for groceries and other essentials.<\/p>\n

[…] The island would not need Congress to step in to fund its food-stamp and Medicaid programs if it were a state. For states, the federal government has committed to funding those programs\u2019 needs, whatever the cost and without needing to take a vote. But Puerto Rico instead funds its programs through a block grant from the federal government, which needs to be regularly renewed, and also gives food-stamp benefits about 40\u00a0percent smaller than those of states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Puerto Rico faces food-stamp crisis as Trump privately vents about federal aid to Hurricane Maria-battered island – The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n

While Puerto Rico is dealing with people deciding whether they can afford rice and beans for the week, their president is pitching fits over giving them even the money they are getting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The impasse comes amid a hardening opposition by the president against extending additional aid to Puerto Rico. Trump sees the island as fundamentally broken and has told advisers that no amount of money will ever fix its systemic problems.<\/p>\n

He describes in meetings that large swaths of the island never had power to begin with and that it is \u201cridiculous\u201d how much money is going to Puerto Rico in food-stamp aid, according to the senior official. He has occasionally groused about how ungrateful political officials in Puerto Rico were for the administration\u2019s help, the official said.<\/p>\n

[…]\u00a0Since then, aides have described a president who regularly brings up the island to make sure it is not getting too much money.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yeah, Donald — I’m pretty sure they’re not getting too much money. Not while their clinic patients have to sit in dirty diapers and citizens are cutting back on buying milk because of cuts to their food stamps.<\/p>\n

Is Puerto Rico broken?\u00a0 Well, it’s a US commonwealth. It’s people are US citizens. We\u00a0took<\/em> that island after the Spanish-American War. It’s our now. And, by the universal Law of Commercial Responsibility:\u00a0You break it, you buy it.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know that’s difficult for a guy who has a long record of stiffing subcontractors and walking away from deals while leaving others holding the bag … but we have a responsibility to Puerto Rico and its populace — American citizens all — if not just from a matter of humanity, then as a matter of the US Constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which most definitely includes our fellow People in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump thinks the amount of food-stamp money going to Puerto Rico is “ridiculous”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[748,528,740,376,1071],"tags":[1267],"class_list":["post-138440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weather-and-climate-change","category-economic-justice","category-race-racism","category-taxing-spending","category-trump","tag-puertorico"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Trump+frown.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41761,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/18\/all-citizens-are-equal-but-some-are-more-equal-than-others.html","url_meta":{"origin":138440,"position":0},"title":"All citizens are equal, but some are more equal than others","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Apr-14 5:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And, no, in this case I'm not talking about plutocracy \/ oligarchy types of stuff, but the idea that \"I don't believe in this law \/ regulation \/ governmental arrangement, and therefore, since I am invoking Jesus and\/or the Gadsen Flag, that stuff shouldn't apply to me.\"Reshared post from +Alex\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12954,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/01\/giving_for_gustav.html","url_meta":{"origin":138440,"position":1},"title":"Giving for Gustav","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Sep-08 2:07pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Things keep looking worse and worse concerning Hurricane Gustav. If you want to help out, may I recommend: Donate to the American Red Cross\u00a0 Donate to the Episcopal Relief and...","rel":"","context":"In "Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters"","block_context":{"text":"Climate Change \/ Weather \/ Disasters","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science\/weather-and-climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12882,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/12\/ike.html","url_meta":{"origin":138440,"position":2},"title":"Ike","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 12-Sep-08 11:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Many years ago, on a business trip to Houston (where we have a major office -- the largest in the company, in fact), a hurricane was heading toward the...","rel":"","context":"In "Weather (mine)"","block_context":{"text":"Weather (mine)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/weather-and-seasons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/ikepath.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":31152,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/06\/hurricane-names-ret.html","url_meta":{"origin":138440,"position":3},"title":"Hurricane Names (Ret.)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Nov-12 12:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"I had no idea that there are seven\u00a0rotating annual sets of tropical storm \/ hurricane names ... nor that there's a\u00a0sizable\u00a0set of names that have been retired as \"significant\" storm names. Embedded Link Retired Hurricane Names The National Hurricane Center uses seven rotating lists of standard names for storms. However,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32015,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/01\/house-gop-ekes-out-fiscal-cliff-deal-leave-hurricane-sandy-for-next-congress.html","url_meta":{"origin":138440,"position":4},"title":"House GOP ekes out fiscal cliff deal, leave Hurricane Sandy for next Congress","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Jan-13 10:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"House GOP ekes out fiscal cliff deal, leave Hurricane Sandy for next CongressExhausted by fiscal cliff deal, they didn't even vote on their \"We don't believe they need all that money, we'll just given them less than half of it\" alternative bill. Classy. Embedded Link House GOP kills Hurricane Sandy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31148,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/05\/hurricane-sandy-climate-change-and-wikipedia.html","url_meta":{"origin":138440,"position":5},"title":"Hurricane Sandy, Climate Change, and Wikipedia","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Nov-12 6:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Wikipedia is an amazing thing, both as a resource and as a sociological phenomenon. \u00a0Where it tends to have problems is where the latter bumps heads with the former.(Note: as of this writing, there is a small area of the Hurricane Sandy entry that discusses its relationship with global warming.)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138441,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138440\/revisions\/138441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}