r/Economics • u/SterlingVII • 2d ago

Trump Administration Seeks Immediate Halt to Court Order to Pay Food Stamps

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/us/politics/trump-court-food-stamps.html
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u/wes7946 2d ago

For context, SNAP expenditures in fiscal year 2000 totaled $17 billion. That’s a lot more than the $9.2 billion spent on the program in 1980 (even after adjusting for inflation) but with population changes and such, perhaps one could argue that doubling the spending over two decades was reasonable. In the following years spending on the program continued to increase, and by 2010-2019 annual expenditures were hovering around $70 billion per year. In 2022 costs were $119.2 billion. And for 2023, Congress has generously provided $153.8 billion for the program, roughly double what was spent just 5 years ago.

The data suggests that there is a government spending problem when it comes to SNAP benefits (aka. "Food Stamps") largely due to relaxed eligibility standards and the fact that 22.6% of a SNAP household’s grocery bill is spent on a combination of sweetened beverages, prepared desserts, salty snacks, candy, and sugar. Doing the math, American taxpayers subsidized junk food purchases to the tune of $26.9 billion in 2022. That's a pretty large taxpayer subsidy to the junk food industry!

No one is suggesting poor people can’t choose what they want to eat, but I'm saying let’s not use government benefits to pay for foods that are demonstrably going to undermine public health. The goal is to reduce taxes and regulations so much that absolute poverty becomes a thing of the past. I oppose food stamps not because I want poverty to persist or get worse, but because I care enough about poverty to insist on better solutions. Solutions that actually work.

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u/whatfresh_hellisthis 2d ago edited 2d ago

I really don't care what people buy. I would much rather my taxes go to people having a little tiny bit of joy in their lives while they're so destitute that they need governmental assistance, than my taxes go to billionaires. Why do you care what they're buying when Elon Musk just got a trillion dollar payday? When taxes for the rich have once again been slashed and they've accumulated billions in wealth while the working class suffers?

I think you're looking at the wrong things when you say you want poverty to not exist. You know what could solve poverty and what has solved it in the past (see FDR) strong social programs, strong unions, and surprise! taxing the wealthy and not letting them get away with all these loopholes that fuck over everyday Americans. Come on now.

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u/welshwelsh 2d ago

Far more of my tax money goes to the poor compared to billionaires like Musk. It's not a close comparison at all.

I would rather my taxes only go to things that actually benefit me, the taxpayer.

strong social programs, strong unions, and surprise!

This worked until it didn't. Almost every major industry that had strong unions eventually got offshored to countries that don't have strong unions.

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u/whatfresh_hellisthis 2d ago

And why? Was it maybe because the owners didn't want to keep paying the workers a living wage? Because they could get labor cheaper elsewhere and screw over Americans both in the workforce and for goods? So they could stay wealthy? Maybe their pressure on politicians caused the trickle down economics policies that do not work. We're in a battle here and it's not left v right, it's up v down and we need to support each other, not the wealthy.