Make America Hungry Again
By 
The arbitrary bureaucratic hurdles Republicans put on SNAP benefits in their upper-class tax cut bill are having their intended effect, and it’s not about WasteFraudandAbuse [gift link]:
The number of Arizonans getting SNAP benefits has fallen by about half in less than a year, a remarkable drop in nutrition aid that may preview the program’s future nationwide following a landmark law to limit assistance that President Trump championed last year.
Many of the 440,000 Arizonans dropped from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — food stamps — remain eligible for help. But the new law establishes steep penalties on states that make too many mistakes when awarding benefits. To avoid those costs, which are so large that state officials say they could end the program, Arizona increased the paperwork that applicants must file, even as it cut the staff to review it.
The result, aid-seekers and officials both say, has been bureaucratic chaos.
It can take months to reach besieged caseworkers, and offices have gone as far as asking people with panhandling income for verification from strangers dropping cash in their jar. Arizonans losing SNAP say they are skipping meals, quarreling over food, and missing rent payments to restock pantry shelves. For the first time, monthly visits to the state’s food banks — private charities — have exceeded enrollment in SNAP, the government’s main nutrition safety net.
Arizona took especially quick and aggressive steps to combat errors, and its caseload declines may prove much larger than those elsewhere. But with other states facing the same penalties, Arizona’s experience as an early test case is being scrutinized for clues to future trends.
Among the Arizonans who lost SNAP is Dee McDonald, who is raising three grandsons in a trim cottage in Mesa with a list of family rules that include “Be Thankful.” Last October, Ms. McDonald, 65, tried to renew a $700 monthly SNAP benefit that supplements Social Security and provides a third of her income.
In November, no aid arrived. In December, a caseworker said to “hang in there” because renewals were months behind. In January, Ms. McDonald made 100 calls without reaching anyone, she said. In February, she discovered her case had been closed. She had submitted the wrong income statement, she later learned, and the state’s delays left her no time to fix it.
Four months into an appeal, Ms. McDonald, a cancer survivor who weighs 69 pounds, bustles to food banks, stretches ground turkey with oatmeal, and skips meals to feed three teenage boys. But grocery bills have left her behind on the rent, and she describes her worries as a mental tax, paid nightly on her pillow.
I recommend the whole thing, especially if you ever feel any lack of urgency about getting MAGA out of office.