President Trump's Agriculture Department is moving to cut spending on food stamps, proposing changes that would slash $4.5 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over five years, trimming monthly benefits by as much as $75 for one in five families who rely on this assistance.
Under this plan, benefits would be cut for 19 percent of households on food stamps, while increasing benefits for 16 percent, with almost 8,000 households losing benefits entirely. Overall, the program cost $68 billion in 2018 alone.
Is it politically significant that those cuts would be concentrated in cold northern states most affected by a change in the way heating costs are calculated?
While the number of families losing benefits is a tiny percentage of the nearly 40 million people who receive SNAP benefits, for those families affected it will be a difficult blow to stomach.
This will be the third time the Trump administration has moved to cut food stamps. In December, the Agriculture Department said it would impose more stringent work requirements. In July, USDA proposed a rule that would take benefits away from more than three million people.
How do you feel about the Trump administration's effort to cut the food stamp program, which is supposed to help families in need buy groceries? That's the subject of this week's NFN Snap Poll. Let us know.