In return for allowing the US government’s debt ceiling to go up, the Republican Party wants stricter work requirements for those on welfare. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said it’s a “red line”.
It also wants cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides welfare payments to families with children in poverty, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which used to be called “food stamps” and helps low-income people buy food.
The debt ceiling was breached on January 19 largely because of the Trump Administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which cut company tax from up to 39 per cent to a flat rate of 21 per cent, and cut taxes on high-income earners.
In the first two years, two-thirds of the benefit of those personal income tax cuts went to the top 20 per cent of taxpayers and they got 100 per cent of the benefit after that.
The debt ceiling was increased or suspended three times during Trump’s presidency without a peep from either side of politics in Congress. Now the Republicans are threatening to force America to default on its debt if there isn’t a crackdown on welfare for the poor.
