“More people in the United States are going hungry now than during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic six years ago,” a National Public Radio report tells us, citing a new survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The New York Fed “periodically asks Americans whether they’re having to skip meals, having to rely on food donations or receiving federal assistance to buy groceries.” Ten percent of families nationwide reported missing meals because their cupboards were bare.
This isn’t the result of a breakdown in production and distribution of food, for “food insecurity” rates are two times higher in “families earning less than $50,000 a year.”
NPR notes that inflation — especially the rapid increase in prices at the gas pump — has made everything harder for everybody.
Gas prices are even higher than during COVID. Reduce fuel taxes now. To really lower prices, end the wars in the Middle East. And ending the ethanol mandate would nudge farmers back to actually feeding people, at the very least reducing corn prices.
Finally, SNAP program subsidies are being reduced over the next decade, a result of the Big Beautiful Bill. To help these “food stamps” actually feed folks during this period, SNAP should be further reduced.
That is, in scope . . . across all states.
This is about trade-offs: Restricting these subsidies from paying for sugary soft drinks, candy, and the like, are underway, state by state, but by the end of the year, fewer than half of these United States will have done so. Taxpayers in all states should demand subsidies that actually help folks, rather than sending them on a slow train to the hospital.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “Feed America, Cut Government”
Please quit using Lefty language like “food insecurity”. They define food insecurity as having to choose hamburger over filet mingon.
Of course gas prices are higher than they were during COVID! Americans in many states were locked down by regulations. Offices and schools were ordered closed, reducing demand for fuel. No one has found a way to repeal the law of supply and demand. NJ lawmakers decided fuel prices were too low and so they raised the gas tax during COVID. They just happened to repeal the increase in time for statewide elections in 2021.
Specious argument to propose a solution that hinges on us “just” ending the 47 year long war in the Middle East. The one that got a nice Kickstart of the $150 billion lifeline that was released to them by the Obama administration. That was the main reason that they had now reached nearly a ton of highly enriched uranium and put them now within months of having 11 nuclear bombs. The record of progress that Obama and the Democrats somehow profess that their nuclear agreement was preventing. Not a single US expert believes that at least some of those wouldn’t be immediately used and target American cities.
Ending the war with real accomplishments of removing the uranium and establishment of real supervision with real consequences would go a long way towards removing that threat. That also appears to be the primary goal of our current war efforts, despite the negative pontificating by all the peacetime wannabe generals.