Six Dollars a Day Is Disappearing For Millions | Diving In
episodePreviously titled “The Biggest Economic Story Nobody's Talking About | Diving In” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Over the past year, Congress passed one of the biggest cuts to food assistance in a generation. And what's happened since, it's been bigger, broader, and harsher than most people realize. This is one of the biggest economic stories in the country right now. And somehow, almost nobody's talking about it.
On average, food stamps pay about $188 per month. That's $6 a day for the typical person. $6 a day for milk, cereal. Maybe you're trying to afford eggs, rice, peanut butter. At $6 a day, it can help. It's the thing that lets a parent say yes to fruit this week instead of no. So hold that number in your head. A lot of folks who need help, they're just not getting it. It touches millions of people and somehow almost nobody's talking about it. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell it to you as a story in four parts. First, let's explore what food stamps actually are and who leans on them. Second, let's dig into how these cuts ended up inside Trump's big 2025 budget law, the one that he calls the one big beautiful bill act.
Third, let's explore what the law actually changed. And fourth, we now know, we have data on what's happened since. We've seen that the damage has spread well beyond the people that the original reforms were supposedly aimed at. I'm Justin Wolfers. I'm an economist. So I spend a lot of time thinking about numbers that have real people behind them. Today, the numbers are stark enough that even I'm going to put the graphs down and just tell you what's happening. Let's begin. So first, what is SNAP? SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Many folks still call it food stamps, even though the benefits are now delivered electronically using something like a debit card rather than using old school stamps.
It's the United States' main program for helping low-income folks buy groceries. That last word matters, groceries. Not going to say I invented that word.
You know, who uses the word? I started using the word, the groceries.
But it's about groceries. It's not about restaurant meals or fancy extras, just groceries. That's all it can be spent on. As I said, the average benefit is about $188 per person per month or $6 a day. Look, that's not enough to live on, but it's enough to help. It helps when the paycheck runs out before the month does. It helps when rent's due. Helps when the power bill lands the same week as the car needs a repair and the kids get sick and the hours get cut. Something's got to give. For millions of families, food stamps are what makes sure that something that gives isn't dinner. So who does the program help? Often it's kids and older folks, people with disabilities. A lot of folks getting assistance are workers who are stuck in low-paying jobs and a lot of single parents trying to keep a household running on wages that just don't stretch, not to mention childcare.
About a fifth of the people on the program are over 60 and about half of all households getting food stamps include either an older adult or someone with a disability. I don't know your family, but for a lot of folks, it could be your mom, your uncle, or your cousin.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–10:38
2
What is SNAP (food stamps) and how much does it typically provide per person?
10:38–14:52
3
Who relies on SNAP benefits and which households are most affected?
14:52–18:42
4
How did SNAP cuts get included in the 2025 'big beautiful bill' budget law?
18:42–19:53
5
Why did lawmakers pair large tax cuts with cuts to food assistance via reconciliation?
19:53–19:57
Speakers
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