This GOP cut will ravage children in red states

What do Louisiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Alabama have in common? For one thing, they’re red states. For another, they’re poor states. Each has among the top 10 highest percentages of residents on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), popularly known as food stamps.

And finally, every one of their Republican lawmakers voted for U.S. President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” — which will result in the largest cut to SNAP in history, at $186 billion through 2034.

The bill doesn’t just cut federal SNAP spending. It also, for the first time, shifts much of that burden to the states. So state governments will need to raise taxes, cut spending, or further slash benefits to meet these added expenses. Others may eliminate their SNAP rolls entirely.

SNAP offers taxpayers a tremendous return on investment.

“One study estimates that every SNAP dollar invested in children returns $62 in value over the long term,” the Center on Policy and Budget Priorities reports.

So GOP lawmakers aren’t making these cuts because we can’t afford SNAP. They’re doing it to offset some of their deficit-busting tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Taking food from kids to give billionaires a tax break? Talk about Robin Hood in reverse.

In an open letter to congressional leaders, 23 state governors — including the leaders of historically red states like North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky — call these SNAP cuts “unrealistic” and warn they will “result in too many Americans forced to survive rather than thrive.”

Red states will be among the hardest hit, but it’s a truly national problem. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 13.5% of U.S households were “food insecure,” meaning they have a “limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods.”

SNAP benefits currently serve more than 40 million Americans, almost half of them children.

Between cuts, burdensome new work and reporting requirements, and the cost shifting to the states, the “Big Beautiful Bill” could cause over 22.3 million families to lose most, if not all, of their SNAP benefits, according to the Urban Institute. That includes over 3.3 million children.

Studies show that work requirements don’t result in more employment — they only result in eligible people losing benefits because of the onerous reporting requirements.

Children whose families receive SNAP benefits also qualify for free and reduced school lunch and summer Electronic Benefits Transfer programs. But millions will lose this qualification under Trump’s new law, leaving kids hungry at school as well as at home. And children who are U.S. citizens but who have parents without a Social Security number will be prohibited from receiving food under this bill.

Children aren’t the only demographic at risk of going hungry. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) found that 55% of non-elderly adult SNAP recipients in 2023 were women, and one-third of them were women of color. Over half were single parents.

The NWLC also found that SNAP recipients are more likely to report “excellent or very good” nutrition than those who don’t receive benefits in low-income communities, pointing to the difference these benefits make for health. Pregnant mothers and kids in early childhood with access to SNAP also see improved long-term health outcomes.

“Do you know what it’s like to hold two master’s degrees, be called ‘Reverend,’ and still need food stamps?” said Reverend Regina Clarke at a rally led by Reverend William Barber’s anti-poverty group Repairers of the Breach.

Clarke is among the demographic of single parents who are SNAP recipients.

“When you strip away someone’s food security,” she said, “you strip away their strength to lift others.”

But lifting our voices and our communities is exactly what we need to do. Whether we live in red states or blue states, all of us need to speak out against this cruelty. Low-income kids and families shouldn’t be going hungry so billionaires can claim another tax break.

• Ta’Kyla Bates is a Henry A. Wallace Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.