During the first week in July, the US Congress advanced a tax bill that would give about $4 trillion in permanent tax breaks to the wealthy and big corporations over the next 10 years. President Trump signed the Big Beautiful Bill Act on Independence Day. How do they plan to pay for it? By targeting the very programs that keep working people afloat — like SNAP (food stamps) and Medicaid. This isn't fiscal responsibility. Its cruelty disguised as economics. Do you agree?

Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, in a recent interview, reminded Americans that there are two counties in Pennsylvania that are directly tied for the highest poverty rate in his state. One is in Philadelphia and the other is Fayette County, which is along the border of West Virginia, is 95% white and overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in the last three presidential elections. That truth rarely gets its deserved airtime, yet it is central to the stakes of this moment. Even though many white Trump voters in Fayette County will lose their SNAP benefits and Medicaid coverage, do you think that they will still support Donald Trump?

Republicans haven't invoked the welfare queen stereotype as they've set about slashing the nation's safety net, but that may be because they don't have to. Vague political language like "spending cuts," "entitlement reform" and "deficit reduction" allow harmful assumptions to do the dirty work. It keeps people from realizing that when Congress cuts SNAP, they're not punishing a stereotype. They're punishing real people. The single mother in Appalachia. The retiree in Arizona. The family in Detroit living paycheck to paycheck. Have you noticed right wing Trump supporters defending these cuts to Medicaid and food assistance as ways to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, and to make lazy Americans go to work to earn their benefits?

Many white Trump supporters will soon suffer from these cuts, too. So why did they vote against their own interests? Because they've been sold a story, one that says that the "takers" are black and brown and implicitly promises that the pain will be inflicted on someone else. One that allows some people in poverty to think that they're the virtuous ones who are being held back and that the cuts will only affect the "waste, fraud and abuse" coming from somewhere else. The truth will become clear soon enough. Some of these voters may come to realize they've been sold a bill of goods. Let's hope that the horrific effects of this legislation eventually cause a moment of reckoning for the people who continue to try to sell the lie of the "welfare queen" to justify their own cruelty. Do you agree?