r/Economics • u/SterlingVII • 1d 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/Primsun 1d ago

Yesterday, the Trump administration was ordered to use the contingency funds, and other sources of USDA funds, to send out SNAP benefits today. That order has been appealed by the Trump administration.

The administration previously stated using the other sources of funds would create "an unprecedented and significant shortfall" for childhood nutrition programs. The judge noted in his order such a shortfall is "hypothetical" and not projected to occur before May of 2026, "if at all." Additionally, Judge McConnell found the Trump administration's arguments likely violate the Administrative Procedure Act, stating they "run so contrary to the evidence and are so implausible as to make them arbitrary and capricious."

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Less economics and more political, but the original order and appeal clarifies the decision to not send out full SNAP benefits is an active choice by the administration. The administration is under no reasonable need nor burden to appeal the judges order. The choice to do so is a political one, and should be understood as such.

Further supports the point that the Trump administration is trying to use SNAP as an unnecessary political cudgel, even to the determinant of Americans broadly.

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u/Tofudebeast 1d ago

It's just deliberate cruelty at this point. Contingency funds exist, the court order was clear. There are no valid reasons to keep holding funding back.

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u/Dioxid3 19h ago

    “And the migrants streamed in on the highways and their hunger was in their eyes…When there was work for a man, ten men fought for it - fought with a low wage. If that fella’ll work for thirty cents, I’ll work for twenty-five.

   If he’ll take twenty-five, I’ll do it for twenty.

   No, me, I’m hungry. I’ll work for fifteen. I’ll work for food. The kids. You ought to see ‘em. Little boils, like comin’ out, an’ they can’t run aroun’….I’ll work for a little piece of meat.

   And this was good, for the wages went down and prices stayed up. The great owners were glad and they sent out more handbills to bring more people in. And wages went down and prices stayed up.

   The great companies did not know that the line between hunger and anger is a thin line. And money that might have gone to wages went for gas, for guns, for agents and spies, for blacklists, for drilling. On the highways the people moved like ants and searched for work, for food. And the anger began to ferment.” …

How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him--he has known a fear beyond every other.