Republicans Have Found Another Insidious Way to Cut SNAP |
The Trump administration is rewarding states for cutting food assistance.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on Monday announced some of the state-by-state disbursement from the Rural Health Transformation Program. Every state will receive between $145 million and $281 million next year—but some are rightly upset about how the money is being awarded.
The $50 billion fund was added to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act late in the process to secure the votes of senators who were concerned about the nearly $140 billion that rural hospitals are projected to lose over the next decade because of Medicaid cuts. The fund was never going to be enough money to cover the gap, but the whole endeavor was made even worse by the fact that Oz, a snake-oil TV doctor, has a lot of discretion about what health policies to push—and which states to prioritize.
This week’s disbursements were used to promote some of the administration’s goals, which include finding creative ways to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once known as food stamps. The........