Kim Reynolds' $4 solution
She could do so much more
The early 20th Century comedian Jack Benny was legendary for portraying himself as a cheapskate.
Once accosted by a robber demanding his money or his life, Benny comically hesitated. “I’m thinking. I’m thinking,” he said.
Another joke (I’m paraphrasing) was the time Benny was charged $3 for a cab ride. He gave the driver a $5 bill and told him to keep the change.
The driver protested: But Mr. Benny, I’m going to have a hard enough time convincing people you were in my cab. Nobody is going to believe it if I try to tell them you gave me a $2 tip.
Maybe I’m showing my age, but I think of Jack Benny when I think of the word “cheapskate.” And that word leapt instantly to mind when I read the news stories a few days ago saying Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds would devote up to $1 million in state funds to foodbanks now that the Trump administration has stopped making payments from the food assistance program SNAP. The administration blamed the government shutdown for the lapse.
Reynolds’ PR department dutifully bragged about the governor’s largess in matching Iowans’ donations. But how generous is it, really?
That $1 million amounts to about $4 for every Iowan on SNAP. It covers less than a day of regular SNAP funding in Iowa.
The shame is that Reynolds could do so much more.
We spend $340 million per year on private school expenses.
The Republican flat tax scheme gives $1 million every year to just 15 millionaires.
Democrats in the state Senate encouraged the governor to tap into the $107 million in interest that has accumulated from Covid-related funds the federal government sent to the state years ago.
They also urged Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird to back lawsuits seeking to push the Trump administration to live up to the law and use the more than $5 billion in SNAP contingency funds available to help these families while the shutdown persists.
They didn’t do that. In fact, Reynolds called the lawsuits “ridiculous” and a “waste of time,” according to KGAN-TV in Cedar Rapids.
After Reynolds made those comments, the plaintiffs actually won those lawsuits. Two federal judges, in separate cases Friday, ruled the administration was obligated to keep paying SNAP benefits.
The money will only cover a partial month, according to CNN, but it would give these families some breathing room.
Trump appeared to signal an openness to complying with the order if the court gave the administration some legal direction, and one of the judges thanked Trump for his “quick and definitive” response.
We’ll see if Trump actually follows through. But let’s hope the administration isn’t as dismissive of these efforts as Reynolds was.
The truth is Iowa’s governor has long shown a hostility to government programs that feed hungry families in this state.
She refused to participate in the federal government’s summer EBT food program during the Biden administration. Instead, she substituted her own state-run plan that, according to news reports and advocates, experienced delays and shortages and fed far fewer kids.
She’s worked to impose restrictions on how families can spend SNAP funds.
Iowa is also one of the worst states in the nation in processing SNAP applications in a timely manner. (Yet, Reynolds continues to claim she’s made state government ultra-efficient.)
Republicans in Iowa also supported the Trump tax and spending bill that slashes SNAP’s budget at a projected cost to the state of $1 billion over the next 10 years, including lost economic activity, according to the Iowa Hunger Coalition.
Reynolds’ moves last week are simply an attempt to shield her Republican colleagues from the political consequences of cutting 270,000 Iowans off food assistance. About 100,000 of them are children.
Reynolds got plenty of headlines, but Iowa’s hungry families won’t get much from the governor’s $4 solution. With any luck, they’ll get some temporary relief from the SNAP contingency fund, and this government shutdown will end soon.
Of course, the latter will depend on how much Republicans relent in their yearslong attempts to kill Obamacare, which is at the heart of the shutdown fight.
Before I close, I want to return to Jack Benny.
The reality is he wasn’t a cheapskate at all. This was just one of his many running gags, like always claiming to be 39 years old or his comically bad attempts to play the violin.
In real life, Jack Benny was a generous man. His daughter, Joan, told how he would raise money for musicians’ pensions and other good causes.
A tribute to Benny on the website of the Television Academy Hall of Fame quotes a friend saying he would tip servers five times more than anybody else.
“There wasn’t an ounce of miserliness about him,” his daughter said.
Too bad Jack Benny isn’t the governor of Iowa.
Along the Mississippi is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing. Also, the collaborative partners with the Iowa Capital Dispatch, which provides hard-hitting news along with selected commentary by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please consider making a donation to support its work, too.
You nailed it. She's just trying to throw out a smoke screen to cover up how stingy and mean the Iowa Republicans are.
Kim Reynolds is the Iowa version of SCROOGE. THE MONEY IN THE IOWA SURPLUS COMES FROM TAXPAYERS--NOT THE REYNOLDS TRUST FUND--IT BELONGS TO IOWANS WHEN THEY LOSE THEIR SNAP BENEFITS--WHAT HAPPENED TO LOVE THY NEIGHBOR. SHE ALONG WITH THE GOP NEED TO LOOK UP THE WORD---EMPATHY. THEY HAVE NO HEART.