Is Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins Brilliant . . . Or What?
A gaggle of self-righteous multimillionaires are now in charge of America’s poverty agencies and policies, and they’re flaunting their deeply held ignorance about poor families—almost none of whom they actually know.
Consider the national embarrassment that is Brooke Rollins, a patrician ideologue who is Donald Trump’s plutocratic Secretary of Agriculture. Besides promoting a corporatized food and farm system, Rollins is advocating a program of back-to-the-future peonage for poor people.
“We have way too many people that are taking government [handouts] that are able to work,” she recently snorted in an interview with Fox Business.
She falsely asserts that “thirty-four million able-bodied adults” are freeloading on public health care. They’re taking Medicaid benefits that they should “earn” through hard labor, she decrees. Her Dickensian solution: Put the moochers to work in the fields!
Noting that Trump’s militarized assault on immigrants has terrorized agricultural workers, thus exacerbating the farm labor crisis, Rollins wants to hitch America’s poor families to the plow. Voilà! Labor shortage solved, and the poor are forced to earn their medical care. What a brilliant leader.
Except for her rank ignorance. Firstly, 64 percent of Medicaid recipients are already working, and nearly all of the rest of them are retirees, unpaid caregivers, unable to work, or struggling to find jobs. Secondly, she’s obviously unaware that agriculture is skilled work. You can’t just bus city and suburban people out to the country and say, “Grow stuff.”
Thirdly, it is beyond arrogant for a rich government autocrat—who takes $250,000 a year from taxpayers, plus platinum health care benefits and a fat pension—to be pontificating about forcing “undeserving” poor folks into hot fields to produce a nice leafy salad for her lunch.
Not Only Is Trump for Sale, You Can Also Lease Him
Frenetic crowds are storming the White House like a Black Friday mob at Walmart!
Illustration by Christopher Cruz
Only these are not shoppers scrambling for family needs—these are chief executive officers, lobbyists, and billionaires out to “get theirs” in the huge Trump-a-Thon sell-off of presidential favors. Common folks need not apply, since MAGA Inc.—Trump’s political fundraising sack—charges a million bucks or more just to buy access to his golden throne.
Once there, everything is for sale. One cryptocurrency huckster, for example, delivered his million to get into a candlelight dinner at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, where he pitched a business deal to Trump himself. Then, for an extra $200,000, the crypto guy was allowed to “sponsor” the annual Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. Yes, they’ve even financialized and corporatized an apolitical, publicly funded event for children!
Not only is Trump being bought by Big Money, but he’s also available for short-term lease. In April, for example, rich entrepreneur Elizabeth Fago leased him for some heavy lifting on a household chore. Her son, Paul Walczak, pleaded guilty to tax crimes last year and was headed to prison. But a million-dollar check to MAGA Inc. put her in direct touch with Mister Fix-It. Sure enough, once her check was cashed, the fortunate son was granted “a full and unconditional” presidential pardon: no jail time, no payment of restitution to his victims.
When The New York Times asked about such a corrupt selling of official favors, MAGA Inc. declared that Trump treats every American the same. So there you have Trump’s million-dollar definition of “American.” If you’ve got the million, you’re in the club. If you don’t, you’re not.