<p>-
- 'Catastrophe': States scramble after Trump's cuts to Medicaid, SNAP</p>
<p>Sarah D. Wire, USA TODAY July 15, 2025 at 6:03 PM</p>
<p>GERMANTOWN, Maryland ‒ Marsha Tonkins has never been one to get involved in politics. She was happy to let others worry about such things.</p>
<p>But President Donald Trump's cuts to food stamps and health care for poor people and those with disabilities, among other things, has pushed her over the edge.</p>
<p>"I'm just worried, extremely worried," said Tonkins, 57, who has a 17-year-old son with autism.</p>
<p>So, for the first time in her life, she attended a townhall, held July 10 by her Democratic member of Congress, Rep. April McClain Delaney.</p>
<p>State officials across the country like Delaney are trying to figure out how the cuts will affect their constituents.</p>
<p>In a half dozen interviews, they told USA TODAY that after months of lobbying against the spending bill, they now have to figure out how their states are going to manage to live with it ‒ and how to help residents like Tonkins do the same. But they're not even certain yet what the impacts will be.</p>
<p>Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP won't fully take effect until after the 2026 midterm elections, but states budget a year, or even two years into the future. Unlike the federal government, most states are required to balance their budgets.</p>
<p>That means making hard decisions about which people they can afford to protect and which ones will be left to fend for themselves.</p>
<p>"As public servants, we all feel a responsibility to fill these gaps, but there's not enough dirt for the hole," said Nevada Treasurer Zach Conine, a Democrat.</p>
<p>"The level of catastrophe that's being created here is not one that states like Nevada are going to be able to sort out," he said ‒ at least not without taking money from other priorities like mental health treatment, education and housing.</p>
<p>Trump and Republicans in Congress have said the budget cuts are needed to rein in government spending, reduce fraud and abuse in the programs and afford tax breaks.</p>
<p>Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman speaks with an attendee after a townhall in Germantown, Maryland on July 11, 2025.</p>
<p>House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said the changes, particularly the new work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, will make the programs for people who rely on them.</p>
<p>"We're going to make that program work better for the people that are truly disabled and needy, not for somebody who's turning down work," he said in a news release.</p>
<p>But by requiring states to pick up a larger share of Medicaid costs and a percentage of food assistance benefits for the first time, Conine and other state officials said the federal cuts merely push costs and responsibilities down to the states.</p>
<p>States don't have the money to cover all of their new responsibilities, he said, and "will quickly be in a place where we have to make the decision between one group of vulnerable people or another group of vulnerable people."</p>
<p>'Tsunami' of costs offloaded onto states</p>
<p>Tonkins joined more than 150 people in an amphitheater-style classroom at Montgomery College's Germantown campus. They came to hear not just from Delaney, but from Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown and Comptroller Brooke Lierman, both Democrats, about what the state will do to plug the estimated $100 million hole in next year's budget ‒ a hole that is estimated to get bigger in the ensuing years.</p>
<p>Lierman told attendees that her office will create a report within 60 days outlining what the bill means for Maryland's revenue and taxes. It will be up to the Legislature to decide how to spend the money the state brings in.</p>
<p>States aren't just facing the Medicaid and SNAP cutbacks, Delaney said. They are facing a "tsunami" of funding freezes, changes to education funding and other ways that the administration is "offloading" costs to states to make the federal government smaller.</p>
<p>"All of these things are layering upon each other … it's going to be very difficult for any state, no matter what their resources, to be able to be that stopgap," she said.</p>
<p>Every state relies heavily on federal funds to balance their budget. According to a report by the National Association of State Budget Officers, federal funds accounted for just over one-third of total state expenditures in fiscal year 2024.</p>
<p>"It's sort of death by 1,000 cuts. And that's really the challenge here, is that there wasn't just one thing in the bill that's going to hurt our budget and hurt Marylanders," Lierman told the gathered citizens at the town hall. "There were so many."</p>
<p>Stacy Staggs, left, from Charlotte, NC and her daughter Sara Staggs, wearing hat, along with other families of children with disabilities who rely on Medicaid for critical health care services visit the Longworth House Office Building office as the group sought to meet with congressional members, July 2, 2025 while lobbying congress as part of the group known as Little Lobbyists, a group advocating for kids with complex medical needs and disabilities.'So big' it's hard to figure out the full impact</p>
<p>Officials from a half dozen states told USA TODAY they are still examining how the bill impacts their residents and the billions of dollars that flow each year from the federal government for transportation and education. Any changes have to be accounted for in the state budget.</p>
<p>"This is so big I don't know if I've figured it all out yet," Minnesota Auditor Julie Blaha, a Democrat, said. "I think people are overwhelmed by how much effect it could have."</p>
<p>How much of this new responsibility they can cover will differ state by state, depending on their local economy, potential for tax increases and political priorities.</p>
<p>Will Connecticut stop working toward fully funding its employee pension program, risking backlash from workers and unions? That's one issue the Connecticut Treasurer is frustrated about.</p>
<p>The estimated SNAP cuts alone exceed the $262 million allocated to the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department. Should New Mexico and other states dip into ‒ or even empty ‒ their rainy day fund to keep providing food assistance? What will happen to people who relying on those programs once those are dry? That's what's worrying New Mexico's Treasurer.</p>
<p>State revenue can only be spread so far, and the estimated new costs for Medicaid and SNAP are expected to be in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars for each state.</p>
<p>Minnesota State Auditor Julie Blaha speaks about U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., during the Johnson County Democrats annual fall barbecue, Sunday, Oct., 13, 2019, at the Johnson County Fairgrounds in Iowa City, Iowa.</p>
<p>Minnesota's Blaha said she expects her state and many others will raise taxes to cover the costs rather that reduce access to medical care or food.</p>
<p>"We just all are going to have to pay more," she said. "It's either going to be raise costs for all of us or horrible cruelty."</p>
<p>'You have to make hard decisions'</p>
<p>Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said cuts are part of balancing a budget, and states are going to have to make their own choices based on what money they get. The federal government had a responsibility to limit its spending, said Sexton, the only Republican state official who responded to USA TODAY's request for comment..</p>
<p>"At some point you have to make hard decisions," he said. "You're going to have to do things that hurt in order to make sure that you can be financially sound in the next 5 or 10 years … And so what is tough today will only benefit us in the future if we can get to more financial freedom (for) the federal government than currently what we have."</p>
<p>House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R- Crossville answers questions during a press briefing after the fourth day of special session at the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville, Tenn., Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025.</p>
<p>He said Tennessee will have to examine the bill's effects as they come.</p>
<p>"It's going to be on us, if we're impacted, to either pick it up or not and make that decision for ourselves on what we want to continue to do or not do," he said.</p>
<p>We want to hear from people affected by or who have knowledge of the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the government, including actions by DOGE.</p>
<p>Know something others should? Reach out at [email protected] or Signal at sarahdwire.71</p>
<p>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: States scramble for funds after Trump's cuts to Medicaid and SNAP</p>
<a href="https://ift.tt/OKgy8ZA" class="dirlink-1">Orign Aricle on Source</a>
Source: AOL General News
Source: AsherMag
Full Article on Source: Astro Blog
#LALifestyle #USCelebrities