As the shadow of Donald Trump’s inauguration day draws near, the question of what will actually happen when he takes office is glowing from millions of TV screens all over the country. With both houses of congress infested by republican majorities, many are worried important social programs might be cut back, plunging vulnerable groups even deeper into poverty than they already are. Mindful of these concerns, warm-blooded politicians, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, have publicly reminded Trump of his campaign-trail promises not to cut medicare or social security, which have both been targets of republican spending cuts in the past. While advocates for decency bargain with the GOP, however, the miserly vipers of Fox News have questioned whether basic social programs, like food stamps, are even necessary.

This level of contempt for reason & ethics is impossible to argue with — but it can be driven away with arithmetic & facts, much like darkness can be diminished by the presence of light. That’s why I’ve chosen to write about the math of cutting food stamps — may it be a blazing bonfire of accurate numbers & reasoning in the hazy night of ignorance & supply-side economics…

What Math Says About

Cutting Food Stamps

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, which most know as food stamps, currently provides food for more than 41 million people and the program costs an estimated $69.8 billion, That may sound like a lot ( at least, to us peasants ) but food stamps only take up about 1.8% of the federal government’s total spending. For the visual learners in the audience, here’s what that looks like:

For the 90% of us that never get to deal with dollar amounts higher than the thousands, it can be hard to get a good sense of the federal government’s spending, which currently totals around $4,000,000,000,000 ( $4 trillion dollars ). To help us get a better idea of food stamps’ impact on the national grocery list, I’ve put together another chart to show what SNAP’s spending looks like next to some of the United States’ other yearly expenses:

Feeding Hungry People vs. Tax Breaks for the 1%

As you can see, congress could save nearly twice the cost of the food stamps program simply by auditing the pentagon ( which has never been audited, by the way )! But perhaps that’d be too much trouble? Ok — then, how about giving the 1% investors a less-huge tax break on capital gains & dividends? Or maybe get rid of the tax-breaks on income earned abroad by multinational corporations?

Shouldn’t public officials consider giving fewer (or smaller) tax-breaks to the wealthy before they slash funds to feed the hungry children of the people who elected them? Congress wouldn’t even need to raise taxes — they’d simply be enforcing the normal rate on a fraction of the income of already-wealthy investors!

Does that seem fair or am I being an idealist, here?

The Cost of Food Stamps

As a Fraction of US Wealth

If investors & multinationals really need their tax-breaks and if it’s really too much trouble to audit the pentagon, preventing them from wasting more than a hundred billion bones, there are still plenty of other options. For instance, consider the fact that, as of 2013, the wealthiest 10% of the US controlled $51 trillion, which is about 76% of the nation’s total wealth. Food stamp expenses are currently $69.8 billion. Now, dividing the two numbers gives us…

\mathtt{69,800,000,000 \div 51,000,000,000,000 = 0.0013 \text{ or about } 0.1\%}

That means that a 0.1% tax — that’s a tax of 1/ 1,000th , or 1-penny-per-$10-bill — a 0.1% tax on the wealth of the wealthiest 10% of us would pay for the entire food stamps program. After ten years, each of them would have contributed just 1% of what they had and, in exchange, more than 40 million of their people would have been able to raise their kids without worrying where their next meal was coming from — for ten years.

Is that a fair deal? If slowly giving away 1% of your current wealth over ten years would ensure the entire country were fed, would you do it?

The Idea of Cutting Food Stamps is Absurd

I understand why some of our elected officials insist on reducing government spending — I get it. Slashing the food stamps program, however, would not only be a laughably ineffective way to save money — it would be unnecessary & mean, too.

And isn’t Fox News the same news-channel that prattles on, saying the United States was founded as a Christian nation? Their commentators, it seems, may have missed these parts of the bible:

“Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” – Jesus, in Luke 3:11

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” – James 2:15-16

“Feed the hungry! Help those in trouble! Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you shall be as bright as day” – Isaiah 58:10

So — audit the pentagon! Get rid of a tax-break or two or ask for a fraction-of-a-percent more from our wealthiest citizens! Talk to your rich campaign-donors, do what you have to do, but — for Christ’s sake — leave the poor & the hungry alone!



In solidarity,

John Laurits

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