Recalling her family’s past need for food stamps, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the Trump administration’s decision to move forward with cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), will cause families to starve.
“My family relied on food stamps (EBT) when my dad died at 48. I was a student. If this happened then, we might’ve just starved,” she tweeted Thursday. “Now many people will.”
She then called out the GOP for coddling the wealthy, while people go hungry.
“It’s shameful how the GOP works overtime to create freebies for the rich while dissolving lifelines of those who need it most,” she tweeted.
The Trump administration’s restrictive plan, which makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training program, will end SNAP benefits for about 700,000 people, Bloomberg News reports.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman claims that the new rule only applies to “able-bodied” people, and that recipients under 18 or over 50, pregnant or disabled, wouldn’t be affected.
As ESSENCE previously reported, if more of Trump’s proposed cuts are successful, nearly one million children could lose their automatic eligibility for free school lunches under the new food assistance rules.
Additionally, more than 3 million people could be stripped of their benefits.