Alamogordo NM
6-07-2025 11:25am

450,000 New Mexican Snap Participants at Risk of Cuts

AlamogordoTownNews.org 450,000 New Mexican Snap Participants at Risk of Cuts

With the “Big Beautiful Bill”Up for debate within the US Senate and at risk of not becoming law the rhetoric intensifies. The Republican Party is spinning that the bill cuts taxes on tips, overtime pay with additional funding to the military to fight fentanyl.

The Democrats spin that the bill cuts programs that are the safety net to the most at risk members of society. The proposal would cut spending in social security, veterans benefits, Snap benefits and others programs for the poor and at risk populations.

In New Mexico, Senator Ben Ray Lujan  took the issue of SNAP cuts to the public. “For the past 50 years, we have maintained a promise to the American people," Sen. Ben Ray Lujan said.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is the program known as SNAP.. Senator Lujan’s focus on Food and Nutrition cuts highlights a republican proposal which he says would slash SNAP benefits by $300 billion

These are people that we go to church with," Lujan told the press this week. "They're our friends. They're our neighbors. They might be your children's classmates. They might be your children's teammates."

Since its creation, SNAP has assisted more than 42 million Americans. In New Mexico, The Health Care Authority says more than 450,000 people rely on the program; more than 20 percent of the population.

The Republican Party of New Mexico responded to KOAT request saying these efforts from Democrats are "nothing more than political theater designed to defend a broken welfare system that fails the very people it claims to serve."

The party argues that reform like this needs to happen in order to end the exploitation of these resources.

RPNM Chairwoman Amy Barela also said, "The people of New Mexico want opportunity, not dependency. RPNM stands proudly behind reforms that protect the truly vulnerable while ending the exploitation of our system by non-citizens and radical agendas."

The Senate faces a July 4 deadline to pass its own version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, leaving little time for compromise or significant changes.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over a decade.

Elon Musk has challenged the bill adding pressure to Republican Senators. He  came out swinging against President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” on Tuesday, slamming the reconciliation package as a “disgusting abomination” in a massive break from the president just days after stepping away from his role in the administration.

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

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6-07-2025 10:19pm

it's good to remember that there are some very needy billionaires that deserve those funds be redistributed to facilitate a crucial income tax break - that will allow them to exercise even more influence in our one-man-one-vote "democracy"....no billionaire left behind!

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6-10-2025 10:28am

Democrats Being Party of the Rich Could Cost Them 2024 Election

Newsweek

Top 15 Richest Americans in 2020, according to Forbes (As of 7/24/2020)
1. Jeff Bezos – $179 billion….DEMOCRAT
2. Bill Gates – $111 billion….DEMOCRAT
3. Mark Zuckerberg – $85 billion….DEMOCRAT
4. Warren Buffet – $73.5 billion…DEMOCRAT
5. Larry Ellison – $72 billion…Republican
6. Steve Ballmer – $69 billion…DEMOCRAT
7. Elon Musk – $68 billion…Socially Liberal/Fiscally Conservative per Musk.
8. Larry Page – $67.5 billion….DEMOCRAT
9. Sergey Brin – $65.7 billion….DEMOCRAT
10. Alice Walton – $62.3 billion….DEMOCRAT
11. Jim Walton – $62.1 billion…Republican
12. Rob Walton – $61.8 billion…Republican
13. MacKenzie Scott – $57 billion….DEMOCRAT
14. Michael Bloomberg – $55 billion….DEMOCRAT
15. Charles Koch – $45 billion…Republican

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6-10-2025 9:59am

That headline says a lot about the lack of responsible leadership in this state.
More than 1 in 5 New Mexicans are in need of assistance.  Shame on you MLG, and shame on Alamogordo Town News for your misleading headline.
None of those 450,000 people are at risk of reduced benefits.  Some that are ineligible, and receiving benefits fraudulently, are at risk of being cut from the program, as they should be.
To start with, the proposed changes wouldn't effect the amount an individual would receive.  It proposes that most able bodied adults would either have to be employed, or be seeking employment at least 80 hours per month.
And it increases the amount of administrative costs the state must pick up.
MLG and the State of New Mexico have blocked attempts by the dept. of Agriculture to verify the eligibility of recipients.  Under the proposal, that will likely increase the amount of program costs the state will incur.  MLG has brought those additional costs on herself.
If MLG doesn't like the additional costs she has likely brought to this state, maybe she should consider the words of Ben Franklin, and then start getting some real industry into the state.

A virtuous and industrious people may be cheaply governed.

Benjamin Franklin

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