Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Scott Turner is making strides to divest illegal aliens from receiving government housing assistance. Turner is also pushing for President Donald Trump’s 2026 proposed budget which seeks, among other aims, to place a two-year time limit on Section 8 housing, hearkening back to former President Bill Clinton’s “Welfare to Work” reform to move people out of a place of dependency into a place of sustainability. 

Spending for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, much of which goes to providing assistance to low-income renters, has been on the chopping block during Trump’s second term. President Donald Trump’s presidential budget for the 2026 fiscal year proposes overhauling the agency, which administers Section 8, but it has not yet been enacted by Congress.

Despite these changes still being weighed by Congress, the fear-mongering media has been running horror stories of all the people who would lose housing should the proposed budget be approved and implemented. 

A proposal by the Trump Administration to cut off rental assistance after two years even if participants still can’t afford rent on their own would put over 3 million people, more than half of them children, at risk of eviction and homelessness. Most of these people are in households that include someone who works but doesn’t earn enough to afford the rent. 

Last week, Turner met with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and other stakeholders in Idaho to discuss the One Big Beautiful Law, when a reporter asked a long, rambling question that concluded with this: is the Trump administration concerned about pushing poor families out of their homes? 

As is typical of the legacy media, when it comes to Republicans and Republican administrations, there is nothing subtle about the approach. The question is akin to asking, When are you going to stop beating your wife?

Secretary Turner asked the reporter to clarify. “You’re talking about the proposed time limits?” he asked. 

The reporter confirmed he was, and asked again if there was “any concern at all” that they would be pushing poor people from their homes. Turner didn’t miss a beat, giving a direct, 10-toes down response. But Turner also showed his prowess at handling this act of “gotcha” journalisming. Not only did Turner “turn the tables” on the reporter, but he schooled him on the reality of government-assisted programs like Section 8, and what the goal behind time limits is.

Turner responded, “No, there’s no concern at all. Government subsidies were never meant to be a lifestyle. Have you ever met somebody who lived in government housing? Personally?” 

The reporter equivocated, indicating he probably had not. Turner continued confidently:

I have. I’ve met hundreds of people around the country. Government subsidies were never meant to be a hammock, they’re meant to be a trampoline. We’re always going to have people in our nation who need help. And we understand that from the heart of HUD, we understand that we’ll have these people.

I met a young lady in a certain city in our country that’s been living in a certain housing project which was deplorable. She 52 years old, she’s been living there since 1953 — excuse me, she’s 52 years old, she’s been living there since 1973. She’s able-bodied, able-minded. She was raised there. She lived there, now she’s raising her children there. That’s three generations living in government subsidies that are able-bodied, able-minded. That’s not the way that our government and our country is supposed to be.

Louder, for the people in the cheap seats. For too long, Democrats and the left have focused on building reliance and dependency on government, turning what is supposed to be a safety net into a hammock. Turner let it be known that these proposed changes are about breaking this cycle, not perpetrating it.