Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) slammed Republicans on Tuesday for proposing major cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps an average of over 42 million Americans purchase food each month.
“Folks who paid taxes and played by the rules, expecting that their government will help them if they fall on hard times and you guys want to tell them to all go screw themselves?” he said at a House Agriculture Committee markup meeting.
“It is so out of touch it takes my breath away. You guys make Marie Antoinette look down to earth. Donald Trump’s Cabinet is like an episode of the ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.’ These people are totally clueless. They don’t shop for their own groceries, they don’t buy their own food.”
Aside from reportedly proposing to slash over $290 billion in federal funding from the program, which is administered by states, the House GOP proposal also includes tweaks to work requirements for participants.
The proposal is one of the ways House Republicans look to offset tax cuts in their “big, beautiful bill” that they hope will satisfy President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Experts warn that the bill could lead to more children facing food insecurity just as research shows that work requirements don’t actually lead to a jump in employment but rather a drop in participants, NBC News reported.
McGovern, after blasting Republicans for lecturing people about “fraud and waste,” stressed that programs like SNAP are in place because most Americans believe “nobody should go without basic necessities.”
He later used a hypothetical example of a recently-laid off factory worker that had been breaking his “back” for decades lifting heavy equipment that would only get just 90 days to get work again “before he goes hungry.”
“I mean seriously, what is wrong with you people?” he said.
“And you know what? I think you guys know exactly what you’re doing. Either that or you’re just so afraid of Trump that you don’t care. But either way, this is just shameful and I find it unconscionable, unconscionable and immoral. And make no mistake, this is an immoral bill.”