Federal budget drastically reduces food aid
Trump’s federal budget bill slashes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides food to those who would otherwise not be able to afford adequate nutrition. Its recipients are seniors, disabled folk, and the poor, many of whom work full-time. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill Act (BBBA) gives huge tax breaks to the rich and corporations while gutting healthcare and food aid for the needy. Congress passed the bill in time for Trump to sign it into law on July 4.
The Big Beautiful Bill Act is a broad assault on the working class. It targets SNAP with a cut of $186 billion between 2025 and 2034. Also, it passes on to states part of the financial burden currently covered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Numerous states have warned they would be forced to drop out of the program entirely. BBBA also expands the work requirements for eligibility to the program, but limits availability to citizens and permanent residents.
The MAGA-driven budget makes it impossible for SNAP to continue feeding the 42 million low-income and no-income people it has helped. Countless will lose this benefit. As a result, nearly 13% of people living in the U.S. could face malnutrition and hunger.
It is tragic that this nation, the richest in human history, needs to spend $100 billion a year supplementing the diets of millions, especially when most have jobs. Now that the Trumpists have their way with BBBA, the hardest working, poorest, most desperate people will end up subsidizing the richest.
Homeless encampment evicted from woods
In the Deschutes National Forest located near Bend, Oregon, the U.S. Forest Service conducted a massive sweep this May, destroying a homeless community of over 100 people. Many of those sheltering in the woods lost their housing during the coronavirus pandemic when their jobs disappeared. Others could no longer work for health reasons. Many currently have jobs that barely sustain them.
High housing costs and lack of affordable residences are boosting homelessness to record levels across the U.S. In Bend, a new hot spot for remote-work techies, house values shot past those of Portland. Many longtime residents, often laid-off lumber workers, could no longer afford the rents. Central Oregon’s homeless population grew 9% in 2024 alone. Bend’s shelters and facilities for the houseless are at capacity.
While the Forest Service claimed the eviction was a long-planned fire mitigation measure, the decision to remove the encampment came shortly after the Trump administration directed federal agencies to increase timber production, that is, to expand logging. Trump is using the hazard of wildfires to open up national wilderness areas.
Government entities frequently carry out sweeps of the houseless, who usually have nowhere to go. In Bend, the encampment of people living in cars and RVs was as out of the way as could be, yet it was still destroyed.
Those without shelter deserve dignity; they are workers suffering from tragedies, usually numerous ones. The ways of the capitalist system are making people homeless, then punishing and harassing them once they are. The current administration certainly has no consideration for the down-and-out.
DOGE cripples AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps is a service agency which hires young people to help with disaster recovery, education, conservation and public health. Or it was that. In May, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut $400 million from its budget. Earlier DOGE had yanked 32,000 corps members off their worksites, 85% of whom were to be fired in late June.
AmeriCorps was founded in 1993 by Congress to “foster and expand voluntary citizen service … in activities designed to help the poor, the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, and the elderly.” Its youth have worked with groups like Habitat for Humanity and Teach for America and have helped build affordable homes, removed debris after a hurricane and repaired park trails. The corps has also coordinated retired volunteers in programs such as Senior Companions and Foster Grandparents.
The cuts hurt all round. Those who lost their jobs are now scrambling to find work, housing and health care. Rural and poor communities who depended on AmeriCorps aid are scrambling to fill a hole.
It is hard to see how cutting tutoring programs for school children in rural Alaska helps Make America Great Again.
Two legal suits challenge Trump’s authority to gut an agency created by Congress: one by a consortium that includes the union for AmeriCorps workers, several social service groups and a tribal school; the other by 24 Democrat-led states plus the District of Columbia. A temporary injunction in June ordered reinstatement of the grants for those states that sued.
Yet AmeriCorps’ future is still shaky.
