Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
(Trump's Harvest Box Isn't Viable in SNAP Overhaul, Officials Say (harvest? with no fresh produce
(Trumps Harvest Box Isnt Viable in SNAP Overhaul, Officials Say
By GLENN THRUSFEB. 13, 2018
People paid for fresh produce using federal assistance at a farmers market in Lake Orion, Mich., in 2013. Credit Lauren Abdel-Razzaq/The Detroit News, via Associated Press
WASHINGTON The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program offers about 46 million low-income Americans both sustenance and economic choice by providing an allowance to buy the fruit, meat, fresh vegetables, soda, ice cream and kind of bread they want to eat. But on Monday, the Trump administration sprung a surprise: Under a proposal in the presidents budget many participants in the program would be given half their benefits in the form of a Harvest Box full of food preselected for nutritional value and economic benefit to American farmers. The cache of cheaper peanut butter, canned goods, pasta, cereal, shelf stable milk and other products would now be selected by the federal government, not by the people actually eating it. The proposal seemed like a radical overhaul of the countrys core food assistance program once called food stamps but now commonly known as SNAP. The idea was to shave about $21 billion a year from the federal deficit over the next 10 years. But the reaction was immediate, and largely negative.
Democrats claimed the plan shackled the poor while business groups, led by big food retailers, would stand to lose billions of dollars in lost SNAP business. The head of one trade association typically supportive of President Trumps economic policies accused the administration of reneging on its pledge to cut red tape and regulations.
In reality, administration officials on Tuesday admitted that the food-box plan which the presidents budget director Mick Mulvaney compared to the Blue Apron grocery delivery service had virtually no chance of being implemented anytime soon. Instead, the idea, according to two administration officials who worked on the proposal, was a political gambit by fiscal hawks in the administration aimed at outraging liberals and stirring up members of the presidents own party working on the latest version of the farm bill. The move, they said, was intended to lay down a marker that the administration is serious about pressing for about $85 billion in other cuts to food assistance programs that will be achieved, in part, by imposing strict new work requirements on recipients.
I dont think theres really any support for their box plan. And, I worry that its a distraction from the budgets proposal to cut SNAP by some 30 percent. Thats the real battle, said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive Washington think tank. The dangers are these other proposals to cut benefits. But all anyone is talking about today are the boxes.
. . . .
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/us/harvest-box-snap-food-stamps.html
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 1119 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (5)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
(Trump's Harvest Box Isn't Viable in SNAP Overhaul, Officials Say (harvest? with no fresh produce (Original Post)
niyad
Feb 2018
OP
Moral Compass
(1,521 posts)1. Abusing the poor
Trump and his acolytes must get up each day and think, How can I crap on the poor today?
Sonny Purdue is a particularly nasty piece of work and is reportedly the source of this brilliant idea.
Trump, of course, knows so little he cant tell the simply bad from the laughably absurd so he went with it.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,349 posts)2. robbing everyone
TrumPutin and his cohort of GOPer crooks think that if they can take from others then it is right and proper for them to do so. They begrudge every dollar of their taxes (which they don't pay, remember) that goes to anything other than grift.