Funding for a variety of pandemic-era assistance programs ran out this year, leaving Americans with fewer resources to help cope with rising prices.
Despite low unemployment and rising wages, Americans have increasingly been relying on safety net programs that could come under further strain in the new year with growing demand and federal funding in jeopardy.
Over the course of 2023, funding for a range of Covid-era assistance ran out, including additional food benefits, housing support and funding for child care centers. That’s left many Americans with fewer resources in the new year to help them cope with rising prices that remain about 20% above pre-pandemic levels.
Further challenges await. One of the first items on Congress’ to-do list after returning from the winter holiday break is to take another stab at passing a budget for 2024. The current extensions to last year’s funding are set to expire in two waves — on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 — and the spending fight could put a number of programs at risk. House Republicans are pushing for spending cuts to social programs, while Senate Democrats are unlikely to have the votes to revive pandemic-era benefits like the child tax credit or rental assistance.
Ya know… There were coupon books instead of stamps, for like 30 years, and there’s adults now that have no clue what even the coupons looked like…
Do we really need the (food stamp) clarification still? I go back far enough to have seen the actual fucking stamps, and nothing about the term SNAP is in any way confusing to me personally… Who the hell are we still qualifying the term for?!?
I mean, I don’t think the term SNAP is confusing. But if you’ve never used it, or don’t know anyone that used it, it’s worth defining for those people.
In the same way that there might be people who don’t know that the ACA = Obamacare, there might be people who don’t know that SNAP = food stamps. More and/or complete information isn’t a bad thing.
I am 100% one of the people you speak of… The last time I witnessed a transaction involving nutrition assistance, it was food stamps. The actual do not fold or spindle coupons…
The whole point of EBT was to make it invisible… You could buy $1k worth of crap at Costco wit your “food stamps” and I’d have absolutely no clue you’d done that. It doesn’t look different anymore, you don’t see it, there’s no monopoly money being used, and the last time I had anything to do with the program personally, it was monopoly money… You know?
I’m the guy you’re suggesting might not know… The quintessential textbook example of this person you claim needs the qualifier… And I say all of that to simply say that it’s silly AF…
I suspect there is a certain portion of the population that doesn’t want the stigma to disappear, but that’s purely conjecture on my part ;)