The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities today issued an analysis of the proposal by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program over 10 years.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated food stamps, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, would cost $760 billion without the proposed cuts.

The Hagstrom Report obtained and published a copy of the proposal last week, after Cantor Cantor sent his proposal to Republican House members. (See links)

The CBPP called the proposal “harsh” and said it would cut 4 million to 6 million people from the program.

According to the center, the people affected would include the following:

• 2 million to 4 million poor, unemployed, childless adults who live in areas of high unemployment — a group that has average income of 22 percent of the poverty line (about $2,500 a year for a single individual) and for whom SNAP is, in most cases, the only government assistance they receive;
• 1.8 million people, mostly low-income working families and low-income seniors, who have gross incomes or assets modestly above the federal SNAP limits but whose disposable income — the income that a family has available to spend on food and other needs — is below the poverty line in most cases, often because of high rent or child care costs. Some 210,000 children in these families also would lose free school meals;
• Other poor, unemployed parents who want to work but cannot find a job or an opening in a training program — along with their children, other than infants.

• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — Cuts in House Leadership SNAP Proposal Would Affect Millions of Low-Income Americans
• Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act — Major Elements
• Nutrition Reform and Work Opportunity Act — Backgrounder