USDA To Grocers: No Discounts For SNAP Recipients
Trump Administration Tells Grocery Stores They Can’t Offer SNAP Recipients Discounts Amid Shutdown
If the Trump administration is going to stick to its narrative that it is congressional Democrats who are starving Americans by allowing the government shutdown to continue, it’s really going to have to explain why the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is telling grocery stores they’re prohibited from offering discounts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, who are in danger of losing their benefits.
According to the Hill, David Cutler, the vice president of the National Grocers Association (NGA), which represents more than 21,000 independent grocery stores around the country, has confirmed that the USDA sent out an email to grocers, notifying them that “offering discounts or services only to SNAP paying customers” would put them in violation of the program’s equal treatment requirement unless a store has a waiver allowing it to do so.
But why, though?
As we previously reported, last week, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to use the government’s contingency funds to continue funding SNAP amid the shutdown. In response, the White House agreed only to pay SNAP recipients half of their allotted benefits for November, effectively defying the judges’ orders, and potentially leaving tens of millions of Americans without sufficient amounts of food for at least a month. Actually, it could be longer than a month for recipients in some states, as a USDA official told CNN because partial payments will require states to reprogram their systems to adjust for the reduced allotments. SNAP recipients in some states may not see their November benefits for weeks or even months.
So, because the shutdown is still ongoing with no end in sight, putting poor people, lower-income families, and other SNAP recipients — which include veterans and disabled citizens — at risk of slipping even further into food insecurity, why is the government telling grocery stores they can’t provide them minimal relief by offering them discounts on their purchases? Because of an arbitrary requirement that wasn’t implemented at a time when the current circumstances of the federal government hadn’t been factored in?
It’s almost as if the cruelty is the point, just as it was when a GOP official told SNAP recipients to “stop smoking crack,” when racists across social media started creating AI-generated videos depicting Black women as welfare scammers, and when right-wing media outlets began perpetuating that bigotry.
It’s not just indifference to suffering; it’s evil people cheering it on, providing no relief, and making sure no one else does either.
May they all receive the karma they deserve.
SEE ALSO:
If SNAP Benefits Get Cut Off, White Grievance Will Eat Itself
When The Government Starves Us: How SNAP Cuts Target Black Survival
