Marble Falls   How could it get worse in the US now?  Just watch it, because it’s happening in real time, maybe not to everyone yet, but absolutely to those with more money than month.

Just as a reminder, Trump’s big bad budget bill was financing continued tax breaks to the rich by taking away lower income, working family’s food stamps and Medicaid or Affordable Care.  Republicans and the president gaslight about all of this, but the cuts are real and even worse than expected.

As the AP reports, “Enrollment in the biggest federally funded food aid program in the US dropped by more than 13% in a 12-month span – a decline far steeper than the government estimated as work requirements and other provisions of …Trump’s …bill take hold.”  Cuts of more than 20% have been recorded now in Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada and Florida.  Arizona is a disaster with SNAP or food stamp recipients falling in half by more than 50% according to the USDA.

Arizona is a tragic case.  Was this because people found jobs so that their income exceeded eligibility standards.  No.  “The state said the drop was driven largely by the state’s own struggles putting new federal requirements in place.”  No doubt there is celebration in the White House and some parts of Congress about this punitive hunger penalty imposed on Arizona and all the other states, because the bill mandated onerous terms and huge consequences for the state, triggering these reductions.  Similarly, a person in Louisiana with a group called “Invest in Louisiana” “said the main reason…people lose coverage is not failure to meet work requirements. ‘A lot of it is administrative paperwork.’”  In short, all of this was premeditated and deliberate.

Furthermore, we haven’t seen anything yet.

In February, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the new requirements and other factors would push SNAP enrollment down over the next decade, falling below 34 million by 2036.  But the nonpartisan office did not expect the drop to be as fast as it’s been.  By May, the number of people receiving the benefits was about as low as forecast to go in 2030.  Experts expect another impact when states are required to pay part of the cost of benefits if their rate of payment errors – when recipients receive more or less than they should – is above 6%.  Advocates for recipients say states may deny benefits to some people entirely rather than risk errors.

Remember who is being targeted here.  These are working people, what some including the United Way have called ALICE families for Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed.  This isn’t welfare.  Just as the name states, this is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance…meaning that it supplements the wages a family earns.  These cuts are pure and simply about making life harder and children and adults hungrier.

Is this really who we want to be?