The Idea That States Have the Budget to Make Up the Difference of a Federal Share Loss, It’s Almost Impossible: Fmr. Congresswoman Edwards on the Trump Bill

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
HAYES: “Pollster. Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman of Pennsylvania. And Donna Edwards, former democratic congresswoman of Maryland. Donna, I want to talk to you about the snap cuts here, which I think haven’t gotten quite as much attention as the Medicaid cuts. But first of all, there’s tens of millions of folks who are on snap across this country, and they vote across the political spectrum. We should be clear. But they also my understanding is that there’s a there’s a pretty enormous policy mechanism here, which is changing the structure of snap funding such that states are now going to have to contribute some of that funding, depending on certain benchmarks. That could really, really kick a lot of people off and fundamentally change the way the system works. Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, saying there is a real question as to whether or not we even be able to operate snap any longer, given the change in the formula. And given the people that are going to be knocked off. What do you think about the implications here?”

Edwards: “Well, I think it’s really very serious. I mean, for one, the idea that states really have the ability in their budgets to make up that difference of a loss of a federal share, I think is almost an impossibility. So many states don’t have that capacity. They rely on those programs. Those programs actually supply our food banks. They are nutrition programs in our schools. They and indeed some farmers, because they supply a lot of those food products and services, are going to lose out as well. And so this is really significant. And the states. Many states don’t have the capacity to make up the difference. And some of those states are some of the poorest states, states like Mississippi and Louisiana and Alabama, that really are not going to be able to afford this. I mean, you think about a state like West Virginia that already has deep pockets of poverty. And so it’s important to be really concerned about these. But, you know, the American people aren’t going to know unless we continue to tell them.”