“The proposed cuts in SNAP are unconscionable and would only aggravate the despair and difficulties experienced by low-income people—leaving them without the help they need and deserve—to survive,” writes Terri Stangl of the Center for Civil Justice in Michigan in this op-ed for MLive.com.
More than 18 percent of Michigan households receive SNAP/Food Stamp benefits, those benefits are extremely important. Each month the Center’s Food and Nutrition Program Helpline “receives many calls…from people who confess that they never thought they’d need help.” Nearly one in five Michigan residents polled last year admitted they didn’t have enough food at times during the year. Families sacrifice food in order to pay housing, heat and water, transportation, medical care and childcare costs.
“The program is heavily monitored,” notes Stangl, “error rates are low, and fraud is aggressively prosecuted. So, it seems shocking that Congress is currently debating cuts to a successful program that—by design—can only be spent on a basic human need: food.” (Food Research and Action Center: www.frac.org)
