Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is fighting food stamp cuts.
The House and Senate are heading into negotiations over their vastly different farm bills this week, and if House Republicans get their way, the outcome will be huge cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Food stamp cuts are coming no matter what—in addition to the benefit cuts starting Nov. 1, as added stimulus funding disappears, the Senate farm bill cuts the program by about $400 million a year—cuts that 39 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, are urging the conference committee reject. But that's nothing compared to the $4 billion a year in cuts in the House bill.
The farm bill will affect most Americans—it's relevant not just to farmers and SNAP participants but to consumers. For instance, if the bill isn't passed, milk prices could rise sharply when price supports expire. It's also not happening in a vacuum, and there are some worrying signs on that front:
One way to pass the bill quickly could be to wrap it into budget negotiations that will be going on at the same time. The farm bill is expected to save tens of billions of dollars through food stamp cuts and eliminating some subsidy programs, and "that savings has become more key as we go into budget negotiations," [Democratic Sen. Amy] Klobuchar said.
Food stamp "savings" are anything but. In addition to the people who will go hungry as a result of those cuts, SNAP funds serve as
economic stimulus; "CBO rated an increase in SNAP benefits as one of the two most cost-effective of all spending and tax options it examined for boosting growth and jobs in a weak economy." As such, the program is a perfect test of whether Republicans really want to help the economy. It's a test they fail, along with the humanity test of taking food from the mouths of children.