Editorial: 'Beautiful' bill cuts Florida seniors' food stamps. That's ugly

The Miami Herald Editorial Board, The Miami Herald on Jun 3, 2025

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When you’re in Washington, D.C., surrounded by fellow members of Congress, it’s probably easy to distance yourself from the human cost of your actions back home. So when the vote comes on a bill that will slash America’s largest anti-hunger program, you say yes.

In another era, it would have been a complete non-starter to go after a program that’s been around since 1939 and helps to feed some of our most vulnerable citizens — especially at a time when food costs have soared. But today? Take an ax to it — after all, it’s part of President Trump’s sweeping spending proposal, designed to shepherd through his top priorities.

But seriously, it’s hard to fathom how House Republicans including the South Florida delegation, could actually cast yes votes on May 22 in favor of slicing nearly $300 billion in federal SNAP funds over the next 10 years — the largest SNAP cut in history — shifting billions in costs to the states.

SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. Nearly three million Floridians rely on it to put food on the table. But if the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — do we really have to call it that? — is approved by the Senate as the House approved it, and the president signs it, the poor and elderly and children who depend on food stamps will suffer.

That’s the big picture. Now here’s the on-the-ground reality in South Florida: Alida Gonzalez, 79, lives with her dog in subsidized senior housing in Cutler Bay. She gets by on a monthly $940 Social Security check, and she told Miami Herald reporter Max Klaver for a recent story that she “couldn’t live” without food assistance.

She receives about $100 a month in food stamps and still is perpetually “counting pennies.” Is she the one who is costing government too much money?

Or is it Rigoberto Zarza? Gonzalez’s 86-year-old neighbor stopped buying meat years ago because it was too expensive. He needs the $100 he receives each month simply to eat, the Herald story said.

But maybe his money should be cut in the name of government efficiency. He’s a three-time Donald Trump voter without regrets, he said, though he acknowledged that the cuts “could be bad” for him and others like him.

The cuts may indeed be bad for Zarza and others. But they’ll be good for certain other people — the wealthy. That’s because these cuts are a result of Congress trying to find $300 billion in savings in the budget so lawmakers can give rich people tax cuts.

It amounts to a reverse Robinhood scheme: Take from the poor and give to the rich. And in Florida, it’s particularly problematic. The state is estimated to be on the hook for about $1.6 billion in SNAP costs in 2028 alone if this bill becomes law. The state is already strapped for money, facing a possible $2.8 billion deficit next year and as much as nearly $7 billion by 2027.

On top of that, the Republican Legislature has been unable to agree on this year’s budget while attempting to cut taxes by reducing either the state sales tax or property taxes.

Add that up, and it seems highly unlikely that Florida’s lawmakers will be ready to step up and help fill the gap in SNAP money in the coming years. That’s even if they wanted to — and since most of them have been competing to out-Trump each other to win favor with the president, they probably won’t want to.

The bill passed the U.S. House on a party-line vote. Miami U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, in whose District 27 an estimated 17% of households receive SNAP money, voted for it along with the other members of the delegation. On X, she celebrated “lower taxes and bigger paychecks” and said the economy will keep growing, based on the passage of the “big beautiful bill.” Her office did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Much of the criticism of this bill has rightfully focused on concerns about drastic Medicaid cuts. But food stamps are critical, too, especially in Miami-Dade County. Almost a quarter of all households in the county rely on the benefits, the fifth highest rate of any county in Florida, the Herald reported, citing U.S. Census. Four in 10 of those households have a child, and six in 10 have someone over 60.

Zarza and Gonzalez and others like them are trusting their government to do right by them. They shouldn’t have to plead for help to keep food on the table.

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