Food stamp cuts

Guests: Michael Katz, Diane Schazenbach, Julie Zaebst

The food stamp program will be cut by $5 billion tomorrow when the temporary funding from the 2009 stimulus bill expires.  That means about $29 less per month for a family of three. Currently, the $80 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides food stamps for almost fifteen percent of U.S. households. But House Republicans are pushing for even larger cuts in SNAP, which they argue has grown to an unsustainable point. Others believe food stamps provide essential support for struggling Americans hard hit after the recession.  What will the cuts mean for U.S. families?  Also, how have our ideas about poverty influenced the food stamp debate?  Marty talks with MICHAEL KATZ, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Undeserving Poor: America’s Enduring Confrontation with Poverty and DIANE SCHAZENBACH an Associate Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University.  Then, Pennsylvania’s Public Welfare Secretary Beverly Mackereth announced she is rethinking the food-stamp asset test.  We’ll talk with JULIE ZAEBST, Policy Manager at the Greater Philadelphia Coalition against Hunger about that news and how the SNAP cuts will be felt by families in our region.