President Donald Trump has sent a proposed budget to Congress that includes slashing $38 billion from farm bill programs, including crop insurance and nutrition supports, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley says reducing crop insurance subsidies would leave taxpayers on the hook to pay for farm damages from natural disasters.
“Isn’t it better to have the farmers pay part of it and the taxpayers pay part of it,” Grassley says, “instead of the taxpayers paying 100 percent, like they do for other natural disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes?”
Grassley’s more open to suggested cuts to SNAP benefits, or food stamps, because he says they are still funded at the stimulus level intended to help pull the economy out of the Great Recession.
“The food stamp program was expanded based upon stimulating the economy,” Grassley says. “Now that the economy’s been stimulated, it seems to me to be legitimate to raise the question, why are we continuing what was expanded for the purpose of stimulus and not for the purpose of better nutrition?”
The president unveiled his budget Tuesday but it faces a long road on its journey through Congress, which ultimately decides how money is spent.
