If you were in Congress representing Page County, would you have voted for recent federal laws that gave tax breaks, especially to high-income earners, but cut funds for food and healthcare for many Page County residents?
One of the law’s biggest causalities of the federal cutbacks is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. More than 2,000 households in Page County (about a quarter of all households in our County) depend on this program to put food on the table. SNAP also gives people a chance for a better life, like the woman who could still feed her family so she could complete nursing school and pursue a career in health care. (Note: Fraud and abuse account for only 1 percent of the program outlays, contrary to what critics claim.)
The federal program that helps pay for free and reduced-price school lunches (National School Lunch Program) is being cut as well. In this County a huge number of our school children (55 to 60 percent) depend on this program to grow up healthy and be alert in school. What kind of future will they have without this program?
A third set of program cuts hurt local food banks. The Page One Food Pantry has been serving the Page County community for 46 years. It serves over 3,000 of our residents (13 percent of our population). According to Feeding America, a nonprofit network of food banks, some of the hardest hit areas in the country are in our valley.
One additional reality is that federal cuts shift the burden onto state and local governments, so we can expect more of our tax dollars will go to food programs.
Meanwhile, 60 percent of the law’s tax relief goes to the top 10 percent of earners in the country — people who make at least $170,000 a year.
So back to the original question: To give high earners tax breaks, would you take food from hungry school kids, parents and grandparents?
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Jackie, there are so many inaccuracies in your letter. First, EVERYONE got tax breaks in the One Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB) and the 2017 tax breaks were continued. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on car loan interest and no tax on senior’s SSI are all examples of how it benefits lower to middle income families. Additionally, SNAP benefits are not being cut so much by the OBBB as it adds 80 hours of work or volunteer a month to receive benefits. That is not too much to ask for having the government provide food and healthcare for a person and their children. Furthermore, as far as your concern for the cuts to school lunches, the OBBB does cut money but a minimal amount per school per year. What it does do is it makes less children automatically eligible for free school lunches. I’m sorry but if parents and school administrators have to do a little more work to prove that some children need free lunch, again, it’s not too much to ask.
I know you want to blame Trump and the republicans but the reality is that Obama and Biden spent way more money on dropping bombs on people thousands of miles away instead of codifying these programs for the next decade which they certainly could have done.
You’re looking for a yes or no answer to your question which is rather elementary. The answer is much more nuanced than you want. I doubt anything I say will sway your opinion but for the love of god, stop listening to the media about spending bills and read it yourself. Work requirements are not a new idea. Reassessing those who need benefits is not a new idea. The final key issue that you are ignoring is that these cuts are an effort to return to pre-pandemic spending levels.
Great letter Jeff. Here’s more ammunition.
“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Middle-class families will get an outsized share of the tax cuts from President Trump’s working families tax cut, according to new analysis done by the Tax Policy Center, a left-leaning think tank. The study finds middle-class earners will get a $1,780 tax cut – a tax cut which every single House and Senate Democrat voted against.
“Even left-leaning academics cannot deny the facts: President Trump and Republicans delivered for the working families of America. Moms and dads, waitresses, line workers, welders, cops, and seniors will all see bigger paychecks thanks to Republicans’ working families tax cuts. Despite Democrat lies, the fact is that President Trump made the tax code fairer and more beneficial for working class Americans while placing a greater share of the tax burden on the wealthy,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08). “The tax cuts will put more money in the pockets of working families and give them a bigger boost compared to the wealthy Americans that Democrats chose to shower with tax breaks under President Biden.”
Quoting a Trump sycophant like Jason Smith doesn’t make what he said factual. Voters are suggested to do their own research, on a nonpartisan site like Taxpayers for Common Sense. Start here: https://www.taxpayer.net/budget-appropriations-tax/bwaf-podcast-ep-84-tariffs-and-tax-cuts-the-hidden-cost-of-liberation-day/
Other readers have correctly pointed out that policy changes in the OBBBA are complex. So, I turned to the Congressional Budget Office for its analysis of the impacts of the bill. (Note: The CBO is the source on which Congress relies for analysis of legislative impacts.)
According to the Congressional Budget Office, once all provisions of the recent federal legislation are considered, almost half of all Page County households will lose money.
The CBO’s bottom line is that households earning less than $53,000 a year – almost half of Page County households – will experience a net loss in income, even before considering the added cost of inflationary tariffs. By contrast, $1 Trillion of the tax cuts over the next decade – that’s trillion with a T! – will go into the pockets of people earning more than $1 million a year. That doesn’t include many of us in this County.
Regarding work requirements, I am with you: Those who can work should. That said, the vast majority of SNAP recipients (90%) legitimately qualify for benefits. The problem with the legislation is that it adds loads of red tape, which makes documenting eligibility so difficult that deserving people will be unable to meet the reporting requirements. You might say, “So what. It shouldn’t be easy to receive federal benefits.” But here’s a test: try wading through the new online process, at SNAP Policy & Procedures – Virginia Department of Social Services; then you’ll probably say, “Oh, it shouldn’t be that hard!” The process is so confusing and burdensome that many people who are qualified for food benefits won’t get them.
90% qualify? There’s no way to know that.” There is no single measure for the total amount of fraud in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments, as different types of misuse are tracked separately. The most prominent forms of fraud and misuse include improper payments and benefit theft via card skimming and phishing.
Improper payments
Improper payments, which include both overpayments and underpayments, are one measure of payment inaccuracy but are not all intentional fraud.
Fiscal Year 2023: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that 11.7%, or about $10.5 billion, of SNAP payments were improper, which was an increase from the 11.5% in the previous fiscal year.
Fiscal Year 2024: The national payment error rate dropped to 10.93% for FY 2024, an “unacceptable” amount of waste, according to the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). When states have a rate above a 6% threshold, they must submit a corrective action plan to the USDA.
Causes of improper payments: According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the leading cause of improper payments is states failing to verify recipients’ eligibility accurately.
Benefit theft
Criminals use “card skimming,” “phishing,” and “cloning” to steal SNAP benefits, which are stored on Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.
Recent surge: Between the final quarter of fiscal year 2024 and the first quarter of 2025, the number of fraudulent transactions jumped by 55%, the largest rise since the USDA began publishing these records.
Total amount stolen: More than $102 million in stolen benefits has been reimbursed since the second quarter of 2023, with one of the largest fraud schemes in U.S. history recently netting over $66 million in fraudulent transactions.
High-fraud states: Some states have experienced a higher rate of EBT fraud reports than others. New York and California, for example, have seen millions of dollars in stolen benefits and high numbers of reported fraudulent transactions.
Reimbursement limitations: Starting December 21, 2024, federal funds can no longer be used to replace SNAP benefits stolen via electronic theft, though some states may still use their own funds. “