Cost Of MAGA Default: Deny SNAP to Nearly 1M Suffering Food Insecurity

Washington, DC — The extreme MAGA House Majority is threatening to manufacture a catastrophic default crisis and economic collapse. To hold the economy hostage, the House passed a long list of hugely unpopular and extreme ransom demands that promise pain for millions of average Americans including veterans, seniors, students, children, workers, and the food insecure. They voted to ship 100,000 high paying manufacturing jobs overseas while going out of their way to protect wealthy tax cheats. The MAGA Majority’s proposed cuts are untenable, unworkable, and unserious, especially as they leave in place costly tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. With the nation now projected to run out of money as early as June 1st, Accountable.US’ Cost Of MAGA Default’ project continues to underscore the catastrophic consequences of a MAGA default that grows closer by the day.

TODAY IN FOCUS: USA Today: ‘I don’t have anything in my refrigerator’: GOP debt ceiling plan would cut SNAP benefits at tough time

Breakfast or dinner? That’s a choice Ruth Rodriquez often has to make for her family since losing the extra food stamp benefits provided during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been drinking a lot of coffee and a lot of water just so I could spare my plate of food for them,” Rodriquez, a single mother in Camden, New Jersey, told USA TODAY. Since losing the added benefits, the family of four teeters on the edge of facing food insecurity along with families across the country − a struggle that could be further exacerbated by proposed Republican spending cuts in the stalled debt limit negotiations. 

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As the nation rapidly approaches the debt ceiling deadline, which economists say could result in a catastrophic default, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Republicans laud a plan that could cut many off from federal food assistance.

McCarthy’s plan, which includes $4.5 trillion in spending cuts, would raise the age limit for SNAP’s work requirements for “abled bodies individuals” without dependents from 50 to 56. Such a change, if signed into law, could affect nearly 1 million Americans ages 50 to 55, the nonpartisan research and policy instituteCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates.

BACKGROUND: Accountable.US’ ‘Cost of MAGA Default’ project puts a daily spotlight on specific harms the MAGA Majority’s default plan and brinkmanship will bring for Main Street and Wall Street alike – from tanking markets, frozen credit, lost jobs, disruptions to critical benefits like Social Security, and soaring interest rates on everything from car loans to mortgages. While the MAGA Majority claims they are holding the economy hostage over supposed debt ‘concerns,’ they insist on harmful cuts – crafted by the far-right House Freedom Caucus – aimed at average Americans while protecting and even expanding debt ballooning tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations that profiteer and ship U.S. jobs overseas. Not a deadbeat nation: The U.S. has never failed to pay its bills and Congress worked to prevent default 78 times since 1960, including 3 times during the Trump administration. The clock is ticking. The MAGA majority should stop playing dangerous political games with American lives and the economy and responsibly pass a clean bill that allows the nation to pay its bills. The sooner they do, the less damage will be inflicted on Americans of all walks of life.  

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