Rep. Clay Higgins
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) ignited a firestorm of outrage after a tweet in which he blamed the 42 million Americans set to lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this weekend for their own plight.
On Thursday, Higgins posted to his official X account: "There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average. Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries. Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack."
Higgins' post was met almost immediately with anger and ridicule. Children's author Kristine Rudolph wrote on Bluesky: "Tell us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house without telling us you don’t do the grocery shopping in your house." Pennsylvania Capital-Star editor-in-chief Tam Lambert posted that $4,200 per year in SNAP benefits amount to "about $80 a week."
Retired air traffic controller Vivian M. Lumbard argued that Higgins' post reveals how "none of these Republicans seem to understand how much groceries actually cost, especially if you have kids."
"$4200 equates to $350/month," she wrote. "I doubt I could cover all my groceries just for myself for that amount of money, even if I gave up meat."
Political consultant Jamison Foster quoted Lucille Bluth from the sitcom "Arrested Development" (who famously said: "It's one banana Michael. What could it cost? $10?) by writing: "It's one month of groceries, Michael. How much room can it take up? Ten closets?"
Political scientist Miranda Yaver broke down Higgins' post by pointing out that Republicans simultaneously expect Americans to "Stop eating processed foods. Make healthy choices: eat more fresh food" while claiming SNAP recipients are "irresponsible" if they "don't have a month's food supply on hand to live on when we can't keep the government open."
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
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