Senate SNAP Cuts
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. The ball is now in the Senate’s court on the Trump tax and spending bill. And the fight over taxes, SNAP cuts, and tariffs is heating up.
Majority Leader John Thune says ‘full speed ahead’ on the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” while slamming Democrats push against extending the 2017 tax cuts …
THUNE … “They are going to be voting for the largest tax increase in American history. That would be 2.6 trillion dollars in new taxes on people in this country making less than 400 thousand dollars a year.”
But Senate Ag Democrats like Amy Klobuchar call the bill’s SNAP cuts a betrayal …
KLOBUCHAR … “This betrayal when it comes to food assistance is going to be very expensive and very out of reach for a lot of people. Forty percent of SNAP participants are kids, almost 20 percent are seniors, and 10 percent are adults with disabilities. This is a 300 billion dollar cut.”
Thune and other Republicans say that will keep producers at outdated 2018 support levels and SNAP at pandemic levels …
THUNE … “Look, it’s very complicated. We know that. I can’t speak for the House schedule. What I can tell you is, we’re going to do everything we can to stay on what we’ve laid out, and that is to try and work through these next two or three weeks to be prepared, to try and put that bill on the floor the last week before the Fourth of July.”
Thune predicts despite the narrow vote margins, the bill will get done, “one way or the other.”
