AGRICULTURE/ENTITLEMENTS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The Agriculture Department moved again this week to cut spending on food stamps, this time proposing changes that would slice $4.5 billion from the program over five years, trimming monthly benefits by as much as $75 for one in five struggling families on nutrition assistance. The latest plan would cut benefits for 19 percent of households on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps, while increasing benefits for 16 percent. Almost 8,000 households would lose benefits entirely. Those cuts would be concentrated in cold northern states that would be most affected by a change in the way heating costs are calculated. The number of families losing benefits is a tiny percentage of the nearly 40 million people who receive benefits, and even $4.5 billion over five years is a trim for a program that cost $68 billion in 2018 alone. But the latest move is the third time the Trump administration has moved to cut food stamps.”
–Lola Fadulu, “Trump Administration Unveils More Cuts to Food Stamp Program,” The New York Times online, October 4, 2019