The Trump administration has proposed changes to three rules for SNAP assistance. The rules change could take food away from 3.7 million people.
A study by the Urban Institute released this week examined the three rules in combination for the first time and found that 3.7 million fewer people would receive SNAP in an average month, 2.2 million households would see their average monthly benefits drop by $127, more than 3 million others would see an average drop of $37 per month, and 982,000 students would lose access to free or reduced lunches.
“What we found is that overall the three proposed changes would reduce the number of households participating in SNAP by about 11 percent if this was implemented in 2018,” said Laura Wheaton, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who conducted the study. “It’s about a 9.4 percent reduction in the number of people participating and about an 8 percent reduction in overall benefits.”
Trump is proposing kicking 3.7 million people off of food stamps. Reducing benefits for 2.2 million households, and kicking almost 1 million kids out of the free and reduced lunch program.
The administration’s proposal takes cruelty to a whole new level. SNAP assistance already doesn’t cover a full month of food. Most recipients are lucky if they can stretch their assistance to last for two weeks.
When I last wrote about this proposed change in July of 2019, I noted that most SNAP recipients aren’t lazy non-working healthy adults, “Most food stamp benefits go to low-income white people, but the Trump administration will also be cutting food assistance for low-income veterans. 1.4 million low-income vets receive food stamps. Additionally, millions of poor senior citizens receive SNAP benefits. 4.8 million seniors are on SNAP. SNAP also helps 20 million children a month eat.”
Those SNAP recipients who can work, already do, but they are members of the largely overlooked class of working poor in the United States. Children and seniors make up most of the people living below the poverty line, but there are also 12 million Americans who work but are still poor.
Trump is trying to pay for his failed tax cut for the rich by taking food away from the poor.
Even while Trump is being impeached, he is still finding ways to harm the most vulnerable in American society.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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