The Senate bill and the social safety net : NPR
President Trump’s budget bill has just passed the Senate. This would reduce thousands of billions of taxes. He would also make the largest sections of the social security net for decades – to things like food aid.
Juana Summers, host:
President Trump’s national policy on the national policy has adopted the Senate. It is now taken into account in the house. This would reduce billions of dollars in taxes, mainly for the good of absence. To help compensate for this, it would also make the greatest reductions in the social security net in decades to things like food aid. Jennifer Ludden of NPR is there to guide us through the last people. Hi.
Jennifer Ludden, Byline: Hi, Juana.
Summers: Jennifer, NPR has reported a lot on the changes in Medicaid, which provides health care for some 70 million low -income, elderly and disabled Americans. And reducing it back was controversial, even among the Republicans of the Congress. Can you simply explain to us briefly what is included in the Senate bill?
Ludden: Okay, and with a reminder, as you said, the legislators of the two chambers still have to agree on a version. But the version of the Senate would reduce Medicaid spending even more than the room of about a dollars Billion. Now, it is mainly thanks to a new requirement that people should work at least 80 hours a month, unless they are exempt. And overall, the Congress Budget Office indicates that this package could cause health insurance to lose during the next decade.
Summers: which is, of course, many people – I want to turn to some of the safety nets that have not attracted so much attention, such as food benefits. Tell us what could happen there.
Ludden: Yes, yes. Thus, more than 40 million people obtain food coupons as we know them, or Snap – this is the additional nutritional assistance program. It would lose 20% of its funding, and it is the greatest reduction in its history. Now this is also partly from a change in its existing work needs. The Senate bill increases the age that people have to work over a decade, until the age of 65. And parents who were exempt should now work if their children were 14 or more. Now, as with Medicaid, a concern is that people would come up against administrative formalities by trying to prove that they work. The CBO estimates that this change could push more than 2 million people out of food aid.
Now, a few more things for food aid – the expense package makes it more difficult for states to give up these work requirements, and the conservatives have long argued that it is simply too easy. You have whole states where they have been canceled. The Senate bill says that you can only get an exemption if you live in a place with an unemployment rate greater than 10% – if high enough. And finally, for the first time, the federal government would not pay all food aid. Most states should participate.
Summers: What looks like a very big change for states, so how would it work?
Ludden: Yes, it is linked to the quantity of states on or underpaid for Snap. Researchers say that these error rates are mostly involuntary, but this would mean that most states should now increase between 5 and 15% of food aid costs. Katie Bergh at the center of the left on the budget and political priorities indicates that this undermines the whole guarantee that people in need should obtain food aid, no matter where they live. And she says that if the states faced a tightening of the budget, they could reduce their Snap program or even deactivate.
Katie Bergh: It is therefore really a proposal that fundamentally changes the structure of Snap, endangers food aid for millions of low -income families and could end Snap as a national program.
Summers: Jennifer, I want to ask you questions about something that attracted a little attention to temporarily reduce poverty during the coronavirus pandemic, which is the federal tax credit for children. Great changes there?
Ludden: Yes, but not as big as some provided for it in the 2024 elections, including now Vice-President JD Vance. The Senate bill passes the tax credit from $ 2,000 per child to 2,200, which would increase with inflation. But unlike the pandemic, legislators have not developed this to include the weakest families, and currently, they are not eligible for this full credit because they simply do not win enough. Now Sophie Collyer is with the center on poverty and social policy at Columbia University, and she says that for her, it really reflects the overall inclination of this tax and expenses package in favor of the rich.
Sophie Collyer: Even this small provision which is supposed to help families do not reach children and families where it could do the most good – where these $ 200 could actually be more significant.
Summers: Jennifer, I’ll let you have the last word here. Anything that we should note?
Ludden: Yes. Another key change for children’s tax credit – at least one parent would now need a social security number. And Collyer says, by an estimate, which could disqualify 2.6 million children who are American citizens or legal permanent residents. And I should simply add, there are provisions in the package that would also reduce federal health care and food benefits for certain immigrants with legal status.
Summers: Jennifer Ludden of NPR. THANKS.
Ludden: Thank you.
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