Talk About Heartless . . .

Talk About Heartless . . .

Statement of Congressman Danny K. Davis on SNAP Reductions

November 1, 2013

Talk about heartless . . . starting today nearly 48 million SNAP recipients - 87% of whom live in households with children, seniors, or people with disabilities - will see a reduction in the amount of their SNAP benefits. A household of three, such as a mother with two children, will lose $29 a month, the equivalent of about 16 meals a month based on the cost of the U.S. Agriculture Department's so-called "Thrifty Food Plan." The average monthly SNAP benefit per person is $133.85, or less than $1.50 per person, per meal.

Twenty-two million children - more than one in four of our nation's children live in households receiving SNAP benefits as do nearly 1 million veterans. SNAP eligibility is limited to households with gross income of no more than 130% of the federal poverty guideline and the average SNAP household has a gross monthly income of $744. We are now literally taking food from mouths of babies.

These cuts are separate from negotiations starting this week over the Republican Farm bill which proposes cutting an additional $39 billion from the program over the next decade. There has been a lot of whining and sniveling in some quarters about the growth of the SNAP program over the past five years. But the fact is, as reported in a recent report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, "the primary reason for the increase in the number of [SNAP] participants was the deep recession from December 2007 to June 2009 and the subsequent slow recovery."

That is exactly what SNAP was intended to do: help low-income families during economic downturns when poverty rises, unemployment mounts, and more people need assistance - and do it quickly without making needy families wait while Congress figures out what to do. SNAP enrollment and costs remain high because the job market remains weak. As the economy recovers, and Americans go back to work, costs will return to previous levels as a percent of GDP. SNAP does not contribute to long-term fiscal problems and in the short term every dollar of SNAP benefits creates at about $1.70 in economic activity.

Cutting SNAP benefits is not only cruel and heartless, it is harmful to the economy, it is senseless.

Instead of cutting SNAP benefits and trying to block health care for 30 million Americans, and holding Social Security cost of living increases hostage in budget negotiations and making it more difficult for Americans to vote we should be creating jobs, and rebuilding our infrastructure, and creating jobs, and making college affordable, and creating jobs and making our tax system more fair, and yes, creating jobs.

That has been, and will continue to be, my focus in the coming months.