We still don't have a Farm Bill because Rep. Kristi Noem thinks we have to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) by $40 billion over the next ten years. Six years of those cuts will equal the damage she and her Republican colleagues did to our economy with just two weeks of a government shutdown. Disgusting.
Also disgusting: the cuts she and her Republican colleagues have already forced on food stamp recipients will cost the South Dakota economy $11 million in this fiscal year:
In South Dakota, about 104,000 people, or about 12 percent of the population, are projected to be on the SNAP program during the 2014 fiscal year that ends next Sept. 30. That means the cuts put in place Friday would reduce benefits by $11 million, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
...Food aid groups and economists said a drop in food stamp benefits would force some families to miss meals or redirect money intended for other services such as a car repair or rent. Iowa State’s Hart said the decline in food stamp spending could be felt in the economy.
“Its primary benefit is to provide nutritional support to that individual but it also can have an indirect impact” on the local economy, Hart said. “You pull a dollar away from an individual as far as food assistance, well, they are going to replace it and not spend that dollar somewhere else” [Christopher Doering, "Cuts in Food Aid Likely to Ripple," that Sioux Falls paper, 2013.11.02].
Oh yeah, and more kids, and moms, and veterans will be hungry. But the average family will continue to pay $6,000 a year in direct and indirect subsidies for large corporations. That number will increase if the Farm Bill Rep. Noem wants ever passes, as it will hand her husband more federal subsidies to sell crop insurance to make sure her children don't go hungry.
Thanks, Kristi, for having your priorities straight.