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Left Behind by Trump’s Boom: The Rural Americans Who Elected Him

"Trump’s Numbers October 2018 Update"

By Sarah Foster
November 28, 2018, 8:00 PM GMT+11

* Countryside missing out on recovery as jobs reappear elsewhere

* It’s ‘real rough’ in east Kentucky as cuts to food-stamps loom

[...]

Federal money rescued rural America after the Great Depression of the 1930s, as the government poured resources into job-creating investments. Today, Washington’s main presence in places like Clay County is the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It helps with everything from building houses to providing medical services. Clay County got a $50,000 grant this year for an ambulance, an urgent need in a region blighted by opioid addiction.

The agency also helped bring wireless Internet to remote areas. That creates opportunities for people to “make good wages from their home,’’ said Anne Hazlett, the USDA’s assistant to the secretary for rural development.

‘Catastrophic’

But the Trump administration plans to cut USDA funding by 16 percent in fiscal 2019, and revamp the food stamps it distributes.

In Clay County, that’s Karrie Gay’s job, as supervisor of family support and social services. She sees some 40 clients a day, many complaining about frozen benefits. Her office is already down two people, and will only replace one because of a state hiring freeze.

Cuts to food stamps would be “catastrophic,’’ says Gay. “We have a lot of clients who have no income. That’s their only source of food.’’

[...]

Hensley can only see a brighter future if she can somehow get out. She hopes one day to buy a plot of land so her children can have a backyard. But not in Clay County.

“This ain’t a good place to raise kids,’’ she says. “There’s good places out of here. But I ain’t run into one yet.’’

— With assistance by Alexandre Tanzi

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-28/left-behind-by-trump-s-boom-the-rural-americans-who-elected-him