The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP has seen both increases and cutbacks. Depending on the moment some changes have been necessary. For instance, there was an emergency allotment during the pandemic. In fact, that was in order to support many families who could not work.
However, not everyone agrees when more funds go to the former Food Stamps program. This is because they believe other Americans have to pay more taxes to make this SNAP program possible. Despite the efforts of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support more people, some lawmakers differ.
Take for example the case in which USDA wanted to help SNAP beneficiaries by giving more funds to the Thrifty Food Plan, making SNAP checks larger. Nevertheless, some Republican lawmakers insist this is too costly for other taxpayers.
What did House Speaker Kevin MacCarthy suggest regarding SNAP?
As there are negotiations going on about the new debt limit, he proposed increasing the age bracket of those SNAP beneficiaries. In this way, they would have to suit work requirements to collect this food support according to Politico. There are other Senators that think that some people take advantage of SNAP.
For example, Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, reported WTAJ-TV, believe that there are some jobless adults who can work and have no children are abusing the SNAP program. Thus, those are the reasons they state to make work requirements more challenging. This would prevent people from doing so.
What about those who are against these cutbacks?
On the other hand, there are some Senators that are against Food Stamps cutbacks. Basically, the main reason is that it could affect those who are vulnerable. That is, kids. Senator John Fetterman tweeted recently about this issue. He insists it is not in his mind the idea of reducing SNAP checks for families and kids.
Mainly because there are tax cuts for billionaires, so he believes it is unfair. The CBPP – the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities- highlighted that more than 4 million children would be affected by this measure. Besides, they believe it is false that people who get benefits do not work.