Reminder: Biden Ordered Food Be Taken from Kids if Too Many Parents Fought His Agenda
The left conveniently suffers from selective memory whenever a Republican president takes office.
As the outcry over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and other actions continues, liberals seem to have forgotten that President Joe Biden’s administration was willing to deprive underprivileged children of meals to push its agenda.
In 2022, Biden’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sought to penalize schools that refused to conform to the radical LGBT movement by threatening to withhold free or reduced-price lunches under the National School Lunch Program, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The administration’s reinterpretation of Title IX required schools to embrace extreme gender ideology, including allowing biological males who identify as female to compete in girls’ sports and access their locker rooms.
This overreach sparked significant backlash from parents.
In districts like Loudoun County, Virginia, parents who opposed such policies faced resistance and mistreatment from school boards. Similarly, Georgia’s Forsyth County School District was accused of Title IX violations simply for removing sexually explicit books from its libraries.
(The allegations were dismissed shortly after Trump’s inauguration, as noted in a statement titled “U.S. Department of Education Ends Biden’s Book Ban Hoax.”)
Despite the controversy, Biden’s USDA escalated its tactics by using school meals as leverage to force compliance.
Even for Democrats, this was a low blow.
In 2023, Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks challenged then-Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on the administration’s Title IX enforcement and its potential impact on disadvantaged students.
“Indiana, my home state, recently passed a law at the state legislature that banned biological males from competing against girls in high school and elementary sports because, obviously, biological males have some physical traits that would give them an advantage in sports over girls,” Banks stated during a House Education Committee hearing, as reported by Fox News.
“The Education Department, your department, has proposed a rule change that would pull federal funding from schools that don’t allow biological males to compete against girls in sports,” he added.
Then came the crucial question: “Mr. Secretary, yes or no, does that mean that your department would take away school lunch programs for needy kids because a state or a school won’t allow a boy to compete against a girl in the sports?”
Cardona sidestepped the question, but Banks pressed on. “No, no, I’m asking you a question. Do you support taking away school lunches from kids who go to schools where boys aren’t allowed to play on girls’ sports teams?”
Cardona avoided giving a direct answer, prompting Banks to respond for him.
“Madam chair, the answer is yes. This administration would take away school lunches from kids who need that lunch, maybe the only warm meal they might ever get, because of the radical agenda of this administration.”
The exchange exposed the administration’s willingness to let children go hungry simply because their parents opposed inappropriate content in schools or objected to their daughters being forced to share private spaces with boys.
This is especially appalling given that in fiscal year 2022, the USDA provided 4.9 billion free or reduced-cost lunches to students in need — yet the administration was willing to let these children suffer if their schools refused to comply with its radical policies.
It’s difficult to imagine a political maneuver more directly harmful to children, but Biden — who prides himself on his supposed “empathy” — had no qualms about using food as a bargaining chip to impose his ideological will on schools.
Meanwhile, Democrats are outraged over Trump’s efforts to eliminate waste at the United States Agency for International Development or implement an employee buyout at the Central Intelligence Agency.
These are the same people who conveniently forget that the so-called “kids in cages” policy originated under President Barack Obama or that violent riots were a problem long before January 6, 2021.
Fortunately, voters remembered. They rejected the Democrats and gave Trump a clear mandate to carry out his agenda — leaving the left to fume while they wait for their next opportunity to impose even worse policies.