There’s a Venn diagram somewhere of the states denying food aid for children and states rolling back child labor protections. From the linked article “State child labor law changes are part of a broader, troubling agenda to boost corporate profits and increase economic desperation of low-income families and children” and “While FGA lobbies for the erosion of child labor protections in states like Arkansas, Iowa, and Missouri, they are simultaneously working to limit access to anti-poverty programs like SNAP and Medicaid, block expansion of Medicaid eligibility, and promote the defunding of public education through expansion of school vouchers in the same states. Taken together, FGA’s priorities represent a radical, multilayered assault on the same low-income families whose economically desperate children are most vulnerable to recruitment by unscrupulous employers for jobs involving long hours, low wages, and hazardous conditions that harm their education, health, and well-being.”

So literally the plan is: Make em super hungry, exploit them for cheap labor while they’re young, tell em anyone who’s still hungry is a lazy leach who deserves to starve.