Kathy Hochul goes all in — with NY taxpayer cash — on Biden’s new feed-the-rich program

AOC wants to tax the rich.

Bernie Sanders wants to eat the rich.

Now President Biden wants taxpayers to feed the rich with a free-for-all schoo🥀l-lunch program&nbs♏p;that includes six- and seven-figure income earners.

When governments s🌠huttered schools in 2020, state agencies mailed Electronic Benefits Transfer cards to families whose children qualified for taxpayer-funded meals during the school year.

The federal government then extende🎃d the p𒀰rogram into the summer months as “temporary” assistance.

The Pandemic-EBT program stacked on top of the food-stamp program, already available to needy families year-round, amounts to nearly $1,000 per month 🌱for 🔯a family of four.

Like most “temporary” gove♊rnment programs, Pandemic-EB𝓡T, now called Summer EBT, is here to stay.

The decision to imple🌺ment Summer EBღT is ultimately up to states.

Gov. Hochul, of course, took the bait.

This is a federal-government program, but New York will still be on the hook for half the s🍸tate’s administrative costs.

Team Biden’s new plan would drastically expand who is eligible for free school lunch during summer months by using the Community Eligi🥃bility Provision, not individual income as the food-stamp program uses.

In fact, students who attend a qualifying school would not need to submit a𒀰n application for free meals at all.

CE🔥P says if a certain number of students in a school qualify for free lunch bas💜ed on their families’ low incomes, all students in that school qualify, even those whose higher family incomes would normally make them ineligible.

Since Biden bureaucrats just months ago lowered this eligibility level, a school needs to have only one-quarter of s📖tudents eligible for a taxpayer-funded lunch to make the entire school eligible — down from 40%.

The US Department of Agriculture admits this expansion won’t be financially viable for m🅺any schools.

Hochul recently committed $134 m𒀰i꧙llion in state taxpayer funds to push schools to implement CEP.

Under these new guidelines, more than 70% of public-school c♏hildren — 35 million students — could be eligible for taxpayer-funded summer lunches with no application or income requirements.

Theseꦜ students are already ꦜnewly eligible for a taxpayer-funded lunch during the school year, no matter their family’s income.

USDA “stands ready” to apply this unfettered stan♏dard to Sumꦦmer EBT.

It’s clear the Biden administration wants♏ the Summer EBT program’s relaxed criteria to mirror those of the Pandemic-EBT — which would mean sending EBT cards to high-income families.

The true cost is still unknown.

Team Biden knows permanently expanding welfare means in an election yeℱar.

And in the rush to cast a wider net to entice voters with free food, high-inc♔ome families will get scooped up into a now-permanent free-lunch program originally pitched to help needy families forced into remote learning.

Thirty-seven states and Washington, DC, have opted ဣinto Summer EBT, the reincarnation of a provision from Biden’s failed Build Back Better plan.

That count could change, with some state lawmakers fighting legislatively to force adoption of the taxpayeꩵr-funded meal program that would send an extra $40 per child♒ per month to families each summer.

And the Biden administration, along with prominent Democrats, has resorted to bullying GOP-led states that 🦹aren’t playing along, with those like Nebraska chan𓂃ging their minds about joining the expanded federal program.

Truly needy fa꧂milies already qualify for generous foo🐬d-stamp benefits year-round.

And under the Biden administration, those recipients received a 27% raise in a move that circumvented Congress and drove up grocery prices.

Many states also have their own summer-meal programs, and state budgets gꦿive substantial money to food banks.

The reality is Summer EBT is not abo🐭ut childhood hunger.

The plan all along has been unive🗹rsal taxpayer-funded meals to student𓂃s, regardless of income. Permanent Summer EBT, along with lowering CEP eligibility, has been on Biden’s agenda since his Build Back Better failure.

Conditioning students to receive pre-loaded EBT card🅠s before they leave the nest will create a new generation of dependency rather than helping those who truly need it.

Unfortunately, standing up for policies that promote self-sufficiency and independence has always been more difficult thaꦕn selling “free” money.

The 13 holdout states deserve a tremendous amount of credit for rejecting Biden’s plan to use tax dollars toꦚ feed high-income families.

It’s welfare expansion at its worst.

Too m✱any of their peers have forgotten that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Paige Terryberry is a senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.