Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, the Guardian featured SNAP recipients, anti-hunger experts, and advocates calling out the “double whammy” of Republicans’ looming SNAP cuts and Trump’s additional steel and aluminum tariffs, which will raise the cost of canned goods that many families who rely on SNAP purchase to feed their families. In the article, Cale Johnson, a constituent of Congressman Don Bacon (NE-02) who voted to cut SNAP, describes “a feeling of panic” as working families who rely on SNAP, like his, begin to feel the impacts of these Republican policies. This article comes as Senate Republicans consider additional tax breaks for billionaires, while slashing SNAP and other programs like Medicaid.
Here are some of the highlights of the article:
- “‘I know that some people have been resorting to stocking up only on non-perishable goods now before they get more expensive,’ said [Cale] Johnson, who has used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) to make ends meet. ‘There’s a feeling of panic and having to prepare in the coming months.’”
- “Tariffs on canned goods, which could raise prices for items in steel cans by up to 15%, would create what some anti-hunger experts are calling a ‘double-whammy’ for people using Snap, now that the program is facing the biggest cuts in history.”
- “The Republican House budget bill, which passed in the House and is now under review in the Senate, would slash Snap, which is considered the US’s most effective tool in fighting hunger, taking food off the table for millions of Americans – including 2 million children – at a time when the cost of key staples is set to grow.”
- “‘As grocery prices continue to rise and Snap benefits are reduced, families across the country will be left with fewer resources to meet even their basic needs,’ said Gina Plata-Nino, Snap’s deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center (Frac).”
- “‘Food insecurity is not going away … and people’s food prices are not going down,’ said Frac’s Plata-Nino. ‘GOP policymakers haven’t thought about those things because the lived reality of average Americans is very different from those who live in wealthy places.’”
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About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.