Let SNAP Freeloaders Eat Cake!
Description
The past week on Fox was wonky - the network spent most of its focus praising Trump during his visit to Asia and promoting Turning Point USA, the nonprofit co-created by the late Charlie Kirk. The network also trashed the Democratic Party while it aggressively promoted Republican gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey.
The only topic worth debunking was the network’s misrepresentation of the SNAP program (Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program) that helps feed nearly 42 million Americans.
Since Trump’s political resurrection Fox News has promoted the president and the Republican Party as champions for working class Americans. Trump is portrayed as a warrior for lower income Americans who are struggling with outsourced jobs, shuttered factories, lower wages and ever-increasing costs for just about everything.
During his last campaign for president Trump promised to lower prices on groceries, housing, healthcare, electricity and gasoline. He emotionally whipped up his crowds like a preacher promising that his divine powers would make all their problems go away.
He alone could fix it. So far most of his base still believes that the magic will happen and Fox News is more than happy to feed their delusions.
Shows I covered on Fox News last week:
Fox & Friends
The Five
Hannity
Several Trump press conferences
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How Trump is Blocking Food for the Poorest Americans
Thirty-seven days ago, Democrats and Republicans could not agree to pass a funding bill that would have funded the government past October 1st. The main issue Democrats are fighting for is an extension of healthcare subsidies for Americans enrolled in Affordable Care Act exchanges along with a reversal of Trump’s cuts to Medicaid.
If changes are not made to both programs, healthcare costs could rise dramatically for millions of Americans. Many will not be able to afford to pay increased prices for their health insurance premiums and others will be kicked off of Medicaid programs for lower income Americans.
One of the casualties of this budgetary battle has been SNAP. Trump has declared that he will not fund the program in November even though multiple federal judges have ruled against him.
Even though the Department of Agriculture, the agency in charge of SNAP, has a reserve fund totaling tens of billions of dollars the Trump administration has still not complied with court rulings to fund the program.
Fox News promoted Trump’s agenda by demonizing SNAP recipients and misrepresenting the program to its audience.
SNAP on The Five
On Wednesday on The Five, the network dedicated an extended segment to trashing the program that helps feed low income Americans.
“Funding for Snap food stamps is set to run out this week, and Democrats are refusing to budge because it’s easier to blame the orange man,” said Greg Gutfeld.
Dana Perino seemed shocked that millions of Americans still needed the SNAP program.
“I think it was a little jarring this morning to realize that 1 in 8 Americans are still needing the supplemental nutritional supplement. Now, that is something I think post, shutdown maybe we should all talk about,” said Dana Perino.
Greg Gutfeld implied that only Democrats were in the SNAP program.
“You should look into who is getting them, what proportion of the party they belong,” said Gutfeld.
Joey Johnny Jones, a guest host, seemed to know absolutely nothing about most SNAP recipients.
“And that’s before Mamdani becomes mayor of this place. I mean, yeah, I think you said a few seconds ago, why are people on SNAP? Why did they continue to need to be on SNAP? And maybe it does need things like work requirements,” said Jones.
According to a recent report by the USDA
Most of the people participating in the program are children, elderly persons, or individuals with a disability. Roughly 86% of all SNAP benefits go to households that include a child, elderly person, or person with disabilities.
About 92% of all SNAP benefits go to households with income at or below the federal poverty line.
Almost one-third of SNAP households have earned income, though only 20% of households have gross monthly income above the federal poverty line. The average SNAP household’s monthly gross income is $872 and net income is $398.
Most SNAP recipients do not also receive welfare benefits. Only 4% of all SNAP households, and only 10% of SNAP households with children, receive benefits through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
Most SNAP recipients do not get the maximum benefit. Roughly 64% get less than the maximum benefit. The average household benefit for SNAP is only $258 per month. The average allotment for a single person on SNAP was only $188 per month.
In 2024 SNAP only amounted to 1.5% of total federal spending.
White Americans make up the largest demographic in the SNAP program.
Joey Johnny Jones - Misleading Stat
During the same program Joey Johnny Jones made a misleading statement about the amount of SNAP benefits that go to New York State.
“On the SNAP thing, just real quick. Almost $700 million of $8 billion a month comes to New York for snap. That’s almost 10% of the country’s SNAP comes to New York,” said Jones.
At first glance it does seem alarming that one state out of fifty might receive nearly 10% of the funding for the entire program.
For starters Jones needs a calculator as 700 million of 8 billion is only 8.75%. The U.S. population is also not evenly distributed throughout the country. Roughly 1/3 of all Americans live in four states - California, Texas, Florida and New York.
New York has a population of 19,867,248 or roughly 5.84% of the total population. This is a breakdown of SNAP benefits for the most populated states in the U.S.. All of the data from the following tables is from the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities.
United States
