SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal benefit that allows people with limited incomes to purchase nutritious food. Except when the GQP is in charge, millions of American families rely on this monthly electronic benefits transfer (EBT), so that they can buy groceries and not starve. It used to be called “food stamps”, but now it’s a debit card with restrictions on what you can buy. In the following states, it is known by these different names.
Alabama, Kansas, Michigan & Ohio: Food Assistance (Program)
Arizona: Nutrition Assistance
California: CalFresh Program
Delaware: Food Supplement Program
North Carolina: Food & Nutrition Services
Vermont: 3SquareVT
Washington: Basic Food Program
Wisconsin: FoodShare
For all the empty talk about imaginary “default payment prioritization plans” and what they would cover, the first large group of people to be most seriously affected by debt ceiling suicide default are SNAP recipients. When the crazy caucus crashes everything this June, children in SNAP households will go hungry first.
Of course, the GQP will ensure that bond investors are paid, as Wall Street believes. After all, it was GQP constituent services tax cuts for the rich that exploded the debt. And nobody seriously thinks the GQP will cut long term military contracts. They always look out for the rich.
Even Tr*mp has said they should protect Social Security & Medicare recipients. But I don’t hear the GQP speak up for food stamps, housing assistance (section 8) or Medicaid. They never speak up for the poor.
Which brings me to my district, around Bakersfield in Kern County California, currently represented by the cowardly idiot named Kevin McCarthy, nominally House Speaker. The GQP have given us more than our fair share of problems: our Congressman, meth, guns, fossil fuel pollution and poverty. But there’s one statistic that everyone, especially Kevin, should know.
Kern County has 187,616 people on CalFresh/ SNAP as of December 2022. By comparison, the City and County of San Francisco, which is almost the same size, only has 100,000 SNAP recipients. Over 20% of the Kern population has insufficient income to feed our families nutritiously without that monthly SNAP benefit. I live in a rural area in Kevin’s district, which is extremely white, has many churches and retirees. And I’d guess almost half the time, the people in front of me at the check out line use EBT cards to buy their groceries.
If Kevin’s crazy caucus succeeds in crashing everything, many of the first people to be hurt live in his district. Sure, most folks around here voted for Kevin, but, if they cut off Nana’s oatmeal check, that will be the last straw for many.
Actually, Medi-Cal (our Medicaid) also spends a lot of money in my neighborhood too. In the past few months they sent ambulances to pick up five of my neighbors: suicide attempt, drug overdose, Covid (unvaccinated & ultimately fatal), death by natural causes and chronic old age infirmities. But still folks around here will tell you to stop the liberals from wasting money on welfare in dangerous cities like San Francisco.
Make no mistake. I don’t want the GQP to cut off Nana’s oatmeal check. But I do want President Biden to remind Americans that it’s not fun for kids to go hungry and to say specifically that more than 20% of Kevin’s district depends on SNAP benefits that would stop in a default. Enough robbing the poor to pay the rich. The GQP must stop playing games. Raise the debt ceiling now.
“But how many of you that sit and judged me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?”
— Buck Owens