WASHINGTON — The Trump administration, brushing aside tens of thousands of protest letters, gave final approval on Wednesday to a rule that will remove nearly 755,000 people from the federal food-stamp program by strictly enforcing federal work requirements. The economy has improved under the Trump administration, the department argued, and assistance to unemployed, able-bodied adults was no longer necessary in a strong job market. “Government can be a powerful force for good, but government dependency has never been the American dream,” Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, said. “We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an indefinitely giving hand.”But anti-poverty groups said the administration’s focus on the unemployment rate was misleading. “We’re talking about a different group who just face a very different labor market.”

Source: New York Times December 04, 2019 15:41 UTC