More than 15 million American families experienced food insecurity in 2016, with more than 6 million of them having very low food security at some point in the year. But never mind that, because Republicans are gearing up another assault on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program:
[Rep. Jim Jordan] said the basic idea would be new restrictions on able-bodied adults ― even if they have children ― along the lines of a bill he introduced earlier this year. Robert Rector, a welfare expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Jordan’s bill would cut SNAP spending by 20 percent over 10 years, which would amount to more than $100 billion.
″There’s significant savings if you do it right,” Jordan said.
Roughly 42 million low-income Americans, of whom 44 percent are children, receive monthly SNAP benefits that can be used to buy food in grocery stores ― making it one of the U.S. government’s biggest and most expensive economic safety net programs.
Take a second to let it sink in that 44 percent of 42 million is nearly 19 million children whose food security Republicans are potentially taking aim at. And it’s not like there aren’t already employment requirements on receiving SNAP if you’re an able-bodied adult—there are. Jordan and his buddies in the extremist House Freedom Caucus just want more and more work requirements, even when the jobs aren’t there. And even if it’ll hurt kids.
This kind of stuff is exactly what Donald Trump is talking about when he previews “welfare reform” as his next big push.