"Leading up to the 2025 budget bill vote-what Republican leaders called the " Big, Beautiful Bill"-policymakers sought to justify benefit rollbacks, including cuts to food stamps (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) and massive cuts to Medicaid and children's health insurance, estimated to total $1.02 trillion over 10 years. When you create rules to determine who qualifies and who doesn't, you increase bureaucracy and decrease effectiveness."
"What was the Republican communications strategy? GOP leaders claimed the cuts only affected those who did not "deserve" support. Earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on CNN that the budget bill aimed to preserve Medicaid for single mothers, "not for 29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games." Johnson's statement was just the latest attempt to conjure up a group of " undeserving poor"-in this case, young gamers -to justify program cuts."
Republican leaders advanced a 2025 budget proposal that would roll back SNAP benefits and impose massive cuts to Medicaid and children's health insurance, estimated at $1.02 trillion over ten years. Communication tactics framed cuts as targeting the "undeserving," using examples like excluding "29-year-old males sitting on their couches playing video games" while claiming to protect single mothers. Creating tighter eligibility rules increases bureaucracy and undermines program effectiveness. Political incentives can push policymakers to make benefits harder to obtain so some people forgo assistance. Social insurance originally aimed to protect against both predictable and unpredictable hazards of life.
Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.
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