December 29, 2023
- as2web
- Dec 29, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 25, 2024
On This Day In 2019
Trump plans to cut food assistance to the neediest
In his final budget, Trump plotted to cut food aid to low-income families who depend on it. The CBPP summarized Trump’s proposals this way: They include “several harmful budget cuts and policy proposals that would drastically undermine food assistance programs that serve children.., (and) would exacerbate the ongoing crisis of child food insecurity in the United States."
The chilling details: Trump chose to slash $182 billion from the SNAP (“food stamp”) program over 10 years. Then he went a few steps further: He tried to disqualify certain unemployed adults from receiving SNAP benefits at all.
And he moved against decades of nutritional science by trying to defund educational initiatives on healthy eating for children.
Brookings notes that the Trump’s budget "would significantly reduce the efficiency and efficacy of the (SNAP) program." And they emphasized that "SNAP benefits helped reduce health problems later in life, improved educational outcomes, lifted women’s economic self-sufficiency, and improved families' immediate financial situation."
Another heavily-criticized Trump idea: He wanted to send packaged/canned groceries to recipients, whereas the current system allows them to buy fresh food from local stores. The plan was exposed as “misguided attempts at cost savings (that) contradict… the mission and goals of the SNAP program,” concluded Brookings.
These reductions seemed to represent a strategic targeting of demographics that largely did not support Trump, all during a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty caused by a global pandemic.
A pattern of neglect: This wasn't the first time Trump tried to cut food stamps for the less fortunate. OTDI 2019, Abby Leibman, president of MAZON, a Los Angeles-based Jewish organization fighting hunger, noted: “It’s a terrible time to be poor.”
Trump’s latest proposals only deepened the assault on America's safety net.
o Learn more about Mazon here: @MazonUSA
o First Focus provides an analysis of the budget’s impact on nutrition at:
o The CBPP offers insights on the proposed cuts at:
https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/presidents-2021-budget-would-cut-food-assistance-for-millions-and
o USA Today discusses the broader implications of SNAP benefit reductions at:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/21/trump-food-stamps-cut-snap-benefits-more-hungry-americans/2710146001/
