Trump Administration Makes Big Move To Cut Food Stamps

Right now, food stamps are often the easiest type of public assistance to get. And they should be…

Because messing around with a lot of red tape and fine-tooth-comb determinations should not be what it takes to decide whether a child is eating tonight or not.

Because they realize that, all but a few states have come up with a way of getting food stamp money to people relatively simply: families automatically qualify if they are already receiving any of a wide range of other types of federal assistance. (Food stamps are a federal program, but administered by the states).

Trump’s proposal would change all that. People claiming they should get food stamps would have to go through a separate application, verification, and approval process, where they’d have to prove that their family income is not more than 30% above the official federal poverty level, which is currently $25,750 a year for a family of 4.

This is usually misleadingly stated by the government — and repeated by many of the news reports we’ve seen — as “130% of the poverty level”. That’s not incorrect. It’s just stating in way that makes it look like the government is being inexplicably generous, when it’s not. That’s because 100% of the poverty level…