Donald Trump inherited an economy with genuinely mixed conditions in January 2025: unemployment at 4.1% and inflation down to 2.9% from a 2022 peak of 9.1%, set against record housing prices, a 6.96% mortgage rate, structural deficits and a well-funded military that GAO says has been losing readiness for two decades. The more precise criticism of what followed isn’t that he wrecked a good economy; it’s that Public Law 119-21, the reconciliation law he signed on July 4, 2025, made a documented distributional choice. CBO found the law increases household resources through taxes and cash transfers by $3.3 trillion over 2026 to 2034 while cutting in-kind benefits, mostly Medicaid and SNAP, by $900 billion, producing a projected 3.1% resource loss for the bottom income decile and a 2.7% gain for the top by 2034, along with 10 million more uninsured people and a $4.1 trillion deficit increase including interest.
View More The Economy He Inherited, and the One He LegislatedTag: SNAP
When Your Meal Allowance Makes You Too Rich for Food Stamps: An Open Letter to Congress
Members of Congress receive $79 per day for meals—an annual total of $28,835 that exceeds the income threshold for a single person to qualify for SNAP benefits. Meanwhile, 41.7 million Americans receive an average of just $6.24 per day in food assistance. This investigation reveals a system where lawmakers earning $174,000 annually claim meal stipends 12.7 times larger than what they provide to hungry families, while at least 17 millionaire representatives utilize these taxpayer-funded allowances without means testing or work requirements. The data exposes an indefensible moral architecture: Congress has determined it needs $79 daily to eat while deciding Americans in poverty can survive on $6.24. When your lunch money would disqualify you from food stamps, the cruelty isn’t a flaw in the system—it is the system.
View More When Your Meal Allowance Makes You Too Rich for Food Stamps: An Open Letter to Congress