Pat Corrects Topical Misinformation

Morning, friends!

Today ol Pat wants to correct two points of misinformation floating about the Internet. Please share this with your family and friends so we can all sound a bit less silly.

1. "Kamala Harris could've passed more legislation to help while in office."

This is simply not true. The Vice President does not have the power to pass legislation. They preside over The Senate and can be the tiebreaking vote, but that is essentially the extent of their executive function. I don't know why so many people think Harris could have "done so much more" (though I do have a theory, since these same people never complained about Mike Pence "not doing anything"). The Vice President is mainly there to make appearances and take over if the President becomes incapacitated. We all should have learned this in like, third grade social studies, but maybe a lot of youse were absent that day.

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2. "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris cut or denied my TANF/SNAP/Medicaid."

I am very qualified to answer this with a resounding lolwhat. The funding for these programs may come from the federal government, but eligibility is evaluated at the state level. Source: I literally do these evaluations for a living every day, and have for more than ten years. I have not once received a memo from the President about a case. In fact, the biggest cutbacks I've seen occurred when Pennsylvania had a Republican Governor. Close to the end of Tom Corbett's term, the Medical Assistance package was terrible in that not a lot was actually covered. This lasted several months, and coverage expanded shortly after Tom Wolf took office.

I don't know why people think this is true, but the idea that the President has anything at all to do with your benefits being denied or lowered is demonstrably false. My working theory is that people just don't realize what the President can and cannot do, so they blame whoever is in charge for any and all problems. No Child Left Behind was a mistake.

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So there we have it. I just wanted to clear up some confusion because people on the Internet like to proudly present their incorrect opinions as fact. And now you learned at least one more thing - maybe two - so we can all go back to bed. Good night, my friends!

Crap open a cold one!

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(This post was brought to you by Broad Street Bound.)