Food Stamps To Be Cut Down By The Holidays

Food stamps are being cut down by the Holidays due to government budget restraints. The national deficit is apparently getting that desperate.

The SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food assistance plan that feeds the poor in the US is facing some setbacks that could reduce benefits for the needy just when they might need them most. The cut down is set to happen in November as a boost in benefits due to the recent recession is expiring.

Lawmakers claim that cutting back on the food assistance program will help the nation recover from its debt, though more people than ever depend on it with unemployment and a weak economy leaving millions of Americans in dire straits. Almost 50 million people will feel the sting as SNAP lowers benefits across the nation.

It may be just a coincidence that food stamps are getting cut down after the recent Walmart glitch which affected several states. People were either cut off completely as the system showed a zero balance, or took advantage of it as they loaded their shopping carts with more than they knew they could afford upon learning that limits had been lifted, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.

Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, crunched the numbers and found that the average cut in food assistance will go from approximately $1.50 per person per meal to $1.40, and that ten cents isn’t much of a difference. Add it up and the overall cut per month based on a 30 day span is $9, so if they really watch their budget, it won’t be that big of an impact.

Stacy Dean adds about the food stamp cut down, “For those of us who spend $1.70 a day on a latte this doesn’t seem like a big change, but it does kind of really highlight that millions of families are living on an extremely modest food budget.”

This could be just the beginning as the House of Representatives has passed a bill leading to a reduction of almost $40 billion from the SNAP budget over the next 10 years. For families already struggling with their food budget as it is, this could eventually lead to major problems as more and more live next door to poverty.

After the recent government shutdown, it appears the US is coming to grips with the crisis at hand, but is cutting down food stamps really the answer? There are people making more money in an hour than most of us will ever see in a year, and the solution as we see it is only making things worse.