Bryce Covert on effects of the New Rule of Public Assistance

The Trump administration has been known to be a little too hostile to the immigrant
community, if the campaign remarks about the same are anything to go by. On September 22, for
instance the department of homeland security proposed several measures which could be used to
keep immigrants from entering the country or from getting permanent residence. The conditions
include barring immigrants if they use Medicaid, public housing, rent voucher, food stamps or
cash assistance. Bryce Covert in her article “Trump Wants to Turn the Safety Net into a Trap,”
opines that though this move is targeted at immigrants, it is likely to affect the majority of
Americans who live in the reality of struggles and occasionally rely on public assistance.
Bryce Covert is an independent journalist and a contributing writer at the New York
Times and the Nation. She has also worked with other editorial entities such as the Think
Progress. Further, she previously worked as an editor at the Roosevelt’s Institute and New Deal
blog in addition to being a contributor at Forbes. She is therefore experienced enough to give an
opinion on matters governance having been in the editor position for long. Her article seeks to
address policy makers as well as the general public about the implications of placing conditions
on public assistance arguing that this will cause stigma and prevent the people who genuinely
need help from seeking it.


The argument that Covert makes in this article is that this policy promotes “self-
sufficiency,” (Covert, n. p), and largely ignores how people use this program. The reason behind
this policy, she says, is that those who use the public assistance programs are exclusively reliant
on welfare and do not work. This is not entirely true as most people that use these programs are
working and only use them to supplement the needs that their meager incomes cannot cover.
Covert uses evidence to prove this. She cites a study done by the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities which show that non-disabled adults that use the assistance program on nutrition
have either worked the year before they applied for the assistance, they work in the year after,
and still others are still working when they apply for the assistance She says that people only
apply for the assistance when what they earn cannot supplement meals. She uses another study to
show that people who use Medicaid are people who work but their jobs lack health insurance and
their salaries cannot cover for medical needs (Covert, n. p).
Covert’s logic thus is that people really need public assistance programs and using these
programs does not imply that these people solely rely on welfare. To label them not self-
sufficient would be unfair since most of these people are working hard but lack of a decent pay
leads them to supplement their income with such programs. If the policy on immigrants
succeeded, most Americans would shun from using these programs which means people will live
in lack even when there is government support. Covert’s argument is true. In a country where the
reality is that people are struggling in everyday life, negative sentiments about public assistance
programs only adds to more challenges of a needy population that won’t seek government help.



                                                                Reference
Covert, Bryce. “Trump Wants to Turn the Safety Net into a Trap.” The New York Times,
October 1, 2018. Retrieved on October 10, 2018, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/opinion/trump-wants-to-turn-the-safety-net-into-a-
trap.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FFederal%20Budget%20(U.S.)&action=click&conte
ntCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacem
ent=1&pgtype=collection