House Republicans voted to cut food assistance for hungry children to pay for their #GOPTaxScam law

House Democrats
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House Republicans voted to cut food assistance for hungry children to pay for their #GOPTaxScam law that gave out massive tax breaks to the wealthiest and special interests. Shameful.

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Opinion
G.O.P. Wants Hungry Kids to Fund Tax Cuts

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.

June 21, 2018

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CreditPete Gamlen

After tearing apart immigrant families until shamed by international outrage, President Trump and his party have now turned to endangering vulnerable American children.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, if House Republicans get their way, more than two million people, many of them young children, will lose access to the food stamp program known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The farm bill that passed by a two-vote margin on Thursday includes tougher work requirements and new eligibility restrictions that would make it much more difficult for families who need food assistance to get it.

The Agriculture Department administers SNAP. If the president gets his way, SNAP would be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. And the name of that department, which already oversees other social programs like Medicare and Medicaid, would be changed to include the word “welfare,” which holds about the same amount of appeal for Republicans as “Communists” once did.

The goal of these maneuvers is twofold: to stigmatize such programs — racially stigmatize them for white voters — and to make them easier to cut or eliminate.



Let’s be clear. Welfare usually refers to a type of cash assistance that has all but disappeared. SNAP, by contrast, is a legally mandated benefit program. Just like Social Security and Medicare, it provides crucial assistance through a provision that’s been written into law.

Some 42 million poor and working-class Americans use SNAP benefits to buy groceries. A vast majority of them are elderly, disabled or children. Of the people who are both of working age and able-bodied, most do have jobs. They simply don’t earn enough to feed themselves consistently............................