- This year, my SNAP benefits were cut without cause, and it was a nightmare trying to re-enroll.
- When I signed up to serve my country in 1967, I never thought I would be struggling to buy groceries and be treated as a political pawn at 76 years old. When you choose to serve your country, the expectation is not that you will get rich. However, when you make the choice to sacrifice part of your future for your country, you don’t expect your country to sacrifice you to starvation for political points.
- I’ve served this country for as long as I can remember. My sister and I proudly joined the Army as young women, and I’ve never looked back. After three years in active service, I knew I wanted to continue serving my country, so I joined the Veterans Affairs as a nursing assistant. In my final few years before my medical retirement, I remember how rewarding it felt to support patients while they regained their ability to breathe after illnesses or walk again after injuries. I never thought that, after service, I would have to rely on SNAP, Medicaid, and my social security alone to survive in America.
- And now, even that stability has been revoked.
- President Donald Trump’s SNAP and Medicaid cuts, supported by my Representative Rob Bresnahan Jr. and U.S. Senator Dave McCormick, will unleash suffocating costs onto so many elderly veterans like myself and the VA patients I cared for every day. The worst part is that these cuts are not in service of balancing the budget. Our elected officials just passed a law that would increase the deficit by more than 2 trillion dollars but make veterans like me go without food or care.
- Now that my two adult daughters have moved out, I am already living out a very modest retirement out of necessity. My Social Security is just enough to cover rent and daily necessities like my phone bill and doing my laundry at the laundromat. SNAP is crucial for me to maintain a healthy diet, as it helps me afford basic proteins and vegetables. However, it is only enough to cover my first two weeks of groceries each month, and I frequently struggle to pay for those last two weeks of food, especially given the skyrocketing costs at the grocery store.
- When veterans like me have to struggle this much just to eat, it just doesn’t feel like our country is living up to the promise it made to me and other Americans who served or who make this country tick each and every day by their labor. Something is deeply broken in our economy when more than half of SNAP recipients are working, but their wages are so low they need support just to put food on their table for their families. And oftentimes, the support isn’t enough.
- Just over the last two months, I wasn’t able to eat healthy because money for food ran out, and I immediately saw severe consequences in my health. As I grow older, it is now life-threatening to skip meals. I cannot afford to go to bed hungry at night because my body will shut down on me. I cannot afford to have my SNAP cut again.
- In addition to SNAP, I also rely on Medicaid to keep my health in check and afford emergency healthcare, like ambulances and hospital stays. Even though I receive certain benefits from VA medical centers, those benefits cannot cover some of my crucial healthcare needs. As a veteran, Medicaid is necessary for me to afford supplies for various day-to-day conditions, including a condition that would otherwise prevent me from being able to leave my house.
- By voting to cut these programs, Rep. Bresnahan Jr. and Senator McCormick have betrayed veterans who have served the flag proudly for years, leaving us to fend for ourselves in our elderly years. I stand with the 1 in 10 veterans on Medicaid and the 1 in 12 veterans on SNAP who rely on these crucial programs. These cuts are a betrayal to our commitment to veterans.
- My message to Rep. Bresnahan Jr. and Senator McCormick and other lawmakers is simple: your vote for this bill is a vote against veterans and our families. Midterm elections in 2026 are coming up, and we will remember those who stood with us and those who did not.
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