Cutting SNAP causes drastic job loss and sends whole communities into poverty.

The short-term, direct effects of the proposed reductions in SNAP spending include: Every $5 in federal expenditures on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program generates $9 in community spending.70 As proposed, the SNAP benefits that would be lost through S. 3240 and H.R. 6083 could potentially generate between $3.3 million and $1 billion in community spending in 2013. Households that qualify for SNAP benefits spend an estimated 45 percent of their income on taxable goods, generating revenue via sales tax.72 In California, where data are available, if all eligible individuals participated in SNAP, $86 million of additional sales tax revenue would be generated for the state general fund.73 An additional $51 million would be generated for county budgets through state and local taxes. Decreased SNAP benefits may, therefore, have implications for state revenues. Every $1 billion reduction in SNAP will result in the loss of approximately 14,000 American jobs, including 7,000 jobs in food manufacturing and agriculture of which an estimated 3,000 are farm jobs. 74 S. 3240 would cut $4 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which would lead to an estimated 5,600 jobs lost annually. H.R. 6083 would cut $16 billion, which would lead to an estimated loss of 22,400 jobs annually. The potential effect of these cuts on jobs contradicts the current efforts to reduce unemployment.