After cuts to food stamps, Trump administration ends government's annual report on hunger in America
Last edited Sun Sep 21, 2025, 02:57 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: AP
7h
The Trump administration is ending the federal government's annual report on hunger in America, stating that it had become "overly politicized" and "rife with inaccuracies."
The decision comes two and a half months after President Donald Trump signed legislation sharply reducing food aid to the poor. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the tax and spending cuts bill Republicans muscled through Congress in July means 3 million people would not qualify for food stamps, also known as SNAP benefits.
. . .
"The questions used to collect the data are entirely subjective and do not present an accurate picture of actual food security,'' the USDA said. "The data is rife with inaccuracies slanted to create a narrative that is not representative of what is actually happening in the countryside as we are currently experiencing lower poverty rates, increasing wages, and job growth under the Trump Administration.''
The Census Bureau reported earlier this month that the U.S. poverty rate dipped from 11% in 2023 to 10.6% last year, before Trump took office.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/after-cuts-to-food-stamps-trump-administration-ends-government-s-annual-report-on-hunger-in-america/ar-AA1MYs6w
The USDA says the 2024 report, to be released October 22, will be the last.
The last measurement of poverty rate was in 2024, so we don't know how it's been doing under tRump
Yes, there is job growth, a very weak 69.6k/month average in the last 7 months (February thru August), according to the BLS:
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001
And the above does not include the 911k downward revision for April 2024 thru March 2025 that was announced September 9 https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143526633 . While 10 of those months are Biden months, 2 are Trump months. If the 911k is evenly allotted over the 12 months, that's a 75.9k/month reduction in the 2 tRump months (February and March -- in this, I'm calling all of January as a Biden month, even though tRump was president for the last third of the month, mainly because the survey week for January, the week containing the 12th of January, was during Biden's presidency)
As for growing wages ...
Real (meaning inflation-adjusted) average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers (about 80% of the private workforce)
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
Here is January thru August
In 1982-1984 dollars
9.85, 9.87, 9.89, 9.90, 9.92, 9.93, 9.94, 9.94
Up 0.91% since January, tRump's first partial month, so I guess growing wages is technically correct, by this particular measure of wages anyway, but the rising inflation is creating a headwind, as can be seen by the stalling out of wages over the last 3 months ($9.93, $9.94, $9.94)
Inflation: The CPI (consumer price index) rise averaged 3.5% over the past 3 months on an annualized basis (core CPI: 3.6%)
The August one month increase annualized is: CPI: 4.7%, (core CPI: 4.2%)
More from where the graphs came from: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143528031#post12
Yes Virginia, we have a rising inflation problem. It's not May anymore.
More data links: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143524396#post11
= new reply since forum marked as read
leading economic indicators bleeding, bad news on upcoming healthcare premiums, and the dollar index --
Consumer Sentiment
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143528951
These people clearly aren't buying the Trump economic narrative.
They are depressed enough as it is, without having to listen to "wokesters" yammering about hunger. (sarc)
There is a local peak right at the very start of 2025. Then it's been straight down except for a little recovery after the worst of the Liberation Day tariff fears (and after the corresponding stock market dive), and now it's heading back down again.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143528951#post4
There's also a 50 year version of the chart at https://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/files/chicsh.pdf for a longer perspective. It's very bleak -- we're at about the lowest level seen in the last 50 years, about matching the lows of 1980, and the 2022 peak-of-inflation low.
Other charts: https://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/charts.html
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To illustrate the power of inflation --
the August retail sales report showed a "strong", "robust", "hefty" 0.6% gain over July, but, after adjusting for purchasing power (inflation), it was only a 0.2% gain, but I didn't see that mentioned in the media (I only saw the 0.6% number and all three of those adjectives above in media reports).
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/retail-sales-show-us-consumer-spending-holds-up-but-almost-everyone-is-looking-for-deals-171632523.html
https://www.census.gov/retail/sales.html
It's not May anymore.
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Speaking of reports, this one is presumably being delayed, rather than terminated, but we shall see -
Bureau of Labor Statistics postpones key data report
The BLS said on Friday that the annual release of consumer expenditures data — initially set for Tuesday — would be "rescheduled to a later date." "We will update users when more information is available," the notice said.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143533340
Some additional excerpts:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3533362
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Leading Economic Indicators fell more than expected in August
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3532601
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And on top of this, horrible news on healthcare premiums: (#1#) ACA (#2#) Employer-based
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3529609
Let's cut out all the negative reporting, shall we? (sarc)
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Dollar Index
