{"id":49339,"date":"2026-07-23T13:28:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49339"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:28:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T20:28:57","slug":"grotesque-and-indefensible-at-least-1-5-million-kids-have-lost-food-aid-under-gop-budget-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/23\/grotesque-and-indefensible-at-least-1-5-million-kids-have-lost-food-aid-under-gop-budget-law\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Grotesque and Indefensible\u2019: At Least 1.5 Million Kids Have Lost Food Aid Under GOP Budget Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Volunteers<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A child helps load food boxes at a food bank in Garden Grove, California on January 19, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Paul Bersebach\/MediaNews Group\/Orange County Register via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe damage from the SNAP cuts could worsen quickly as some states are considering ending their SNAP programs entirely as soon as October 2027,\u201d warned one expert.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jul 22, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 1.5 million children<\/a> have lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits since US President Donald Trump<\/a> signed the Republican budget<\/a> package into law last summer, enacting the largest cuts to federal food aid in the nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new estimate<\/a> of food aid loss among children comes from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), which said Tuesday that SNAP<\/a> participation was down by over 4.5 million people overall between July 2025 and April 2026. Refuting the Trump administration\u2019s narrative<\/a>, the liberal think tank emphasized that the unemployment<\/a> rate nationwide has been roughly flat since last July, meaning it is \u201cvery unlikely that reduced need is driving the decline in SNAP participation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\u2018Frankly<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Frankly Sickening\u2019: Reports Highlight Brutal Impact of Trump-GOP Cuts to Food Aid<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"President<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One Year In, Trump\u2019s \u2018Big, Ugly Bill\u2019 Is the Kick In the Face Worker Advocates Warned About<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arizona has seen the most staggering decline in SNAP participation. It has fallen 48% overall and 49% among children in the state since enactment of the Trump-GOP budget law, which instituted new work-reporting requirements for some recipients and punishments for states<\/a> with elevated payment error rates. Under Republican law, states will for the first time have to pay a portion of SNAP benefit costs, which previously were fully covered by the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrotesque and indefensible,\u201d policy analyst Michael Linden wrote<\/a> in response to the new data, noting that the Republican budget law slashed taxes for wealthy households while decimating SNAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, The\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0published a report\u00a0detailing the horror show<\/a>\u00a0residents have experienced as they\u2019ve attempted to reenroll in SNAP after improperly losing benefits due to bureaucratic chaos stemming from the\u00a0GOP<\/a>\u00a0law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/x.com\/Katie_Bergh\/status\/2079603295589421450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2079603295589421450%7Ctwgr%5E0af84eda6f412fcc1a432e5c9bf7cdc62157e97b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fchildren-lose-snap-benefits<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharon Parrott, CBPP\u2019s president, said<\/a> Tuesday that the consequences of the massive SNAP cuts\u2014totaling around $200 billion over the next decade\u2014have been \u201cstark: an ill grandmother raising teens can\u2019t get her SNAP reinstated<\/a> despite being eligible, and parents are skipping meals to save food for their children. Families who have had their food assistance taken away are turning to overburdened food banks, which cannot fill the gap<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c House Republicans<\/a> are looking past this emergency in their budget legislation\u2014while using it to help farmers struggling with high costs due to Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> and oil<\/a> prices driven up by the war in Iran,\u201d said Parrott, referring to the GOP\u2019s new reconciliation package<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe damage from the SNAP cuts could worsen quickly as some states are\u00a0considering<\/a>\u00a0ending<\/a>\u00a0their SNAP programs\u00a0entirely<\/em>\u00a0as soon as October 2027, when the cost shift takes effect. States unable or unwilling to pay the costs they incur will have no choice but to end the program,\u201d Parrott warned. \u201cPeople across the US consistently say they want\u00a0Washington<\/a>\u00a0to focus on affordability, especially the cost of food. Mitigating last year\u2019s cuts to SNAP and staunching the number of families and children losing SNAP would be a good place to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A child helps load food boxes at a food bank in Garden Grove, California on January 19, 2026. \u00a0(Photo by Paul Bersebach\/MediaNews Group\/Orange County Register via Getty Images) \u201cThe damage from the SNAP cuts could worsen quickly as some states are considering ending their SNAP programs entirely as soon as… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1879],"tags":[1993],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49340,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49339\/revisions\/49340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}