Republicans will hand poor the bill for Trump's tax cuts
By Matthew Yglesias / Bloomberg Opinion
There are a lot of known unknowns about exactly how Republicans will approach the major tax and spending issues facing the new Congress. But one thing is clear: Low-income Americans are going to be in the crosshairs.
A “menu” of potential cuts developed by House Republicans proposes somewhere north of $5 trillion in spending reductions, the vast majority coming out of the pockets of the most vulnerable.
The biggest item on the list is $2.3 trillion in proposed Medicaid cuts. But the most egregious is a $274 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that would reverse one of President Joe Biden’s best but least-heralded initiatives; an update to what’s known as the Thrifty Food Plan.
Here’s how it works. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends four bundles of groceries that represent a “nutritious, practical, cost-effective diet prepared at home” for a family of two middle-aged adults and two children. There’s the thrifty plan (the cheap one), a low-cost plan, a moderate-cost plan and a liberal plan. SNAP benefits are paid according to a formula that is based on the price of the thrifty plan, scaled to the size of the household receiving the benefits.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-republicans-will-hand-poor-the-bill-for-trumps-tax-cuts/