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Comment by kauffj | Hacker News Reader

At least to me, the discontinuities in things like TANF, Medicaid, CHIP, etc. are some of the greatest signs of political dysfunction.

There's nothing remotely partisan about these being a bad thing. _Everyone_ should agree that these make no sense and mis-incentivize behavior. Yet these flaws remain for decades despite being known and discussed for approximately the entirety of their existence.

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Not to belittle the lives that depend on this stuff, but these issues go back to flippin Rome. The Grain Dole was a huge part of Roman politics and it's history is fascinating reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura_Annonae#Politics_and_the_...

These issues are not very complicated: give people free stuff and they support you, let the next consuls/emperor worry about the revolts in Sicily (or whatever) that the Dole causes.

We keep saying that these problems will come back to haunt us, but that's all history has ever been.

The problem he is pointing to isn’t the free stuff, it is the discontinuity from hard cutoffs instead of gradually fading out.

It always seems like these programs being attackable is a benefit because it lets you continuously rally passionate donors to always fight for the programs and fund campaigns. Conversely, stable universal programs don't draw as much attention and fundraising.

It’s the stated goal of the party in power to throw as many kids off food assistance as possible. If the program has quirks that is by design.

What is “the party in power”? Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate. No laws can be passed right now without bipartisan support.

Moreover, these discontinuities and the perverse incentives that they lead to on the cusps have been elements of these programs for longer than I've been alive.

Depending on how long you’ve been here, you may have been living under a Reagan-esque conservative regime the whole time. Over my entire life I’ve seen only actual republican policies, or policies of weak-minded Democrats easily baited into acting like Republicans. There hasn’t been a sincere and effective advocate for the poor in America since LBJ.

You're being downvoted but you're correct. A glance at some of the potential Democratic presidential nominees tells the whole story: Biden (classic case of "weak-minded Democrats easily baited into acting like Republicans"), Warren (actually was a Republican, during the Reagan years no less!), Buttigieg (previously a firm supporter of M4A then was somehow persuaded to water it down to "Medicare for all...who want it") ... Bloomberg!

Both parties have had multiple turns at the wheel since many of these policies have existed. Whichever party isn't in power blasts the other party for not fixing it. In essence, both parties use social benefits like political bargaining chips for buying votes because they know people will show up for those issues.

This issue is eerily similar to the 'border crisis' we've been facing. The issues surrounding the treatment of immigrants that have been decried as inhumane and unethical were fully in force long before 2016. Of course, it wasn't an issue for the Democratic party until we got closer to the census and the other team was at the helm.

I don't think there's any real evidence that either party has the best interests of the people at heart, or that they have any genuine intent to fix the issues at all.

Exactly, anyone deriding a single party is in fact a pawn. Zoom out, and you realize you're trapped in a matrix of control by all parties.

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