If President Trump’s proposed overhaul to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is implemented (under the guise of a “harvest box”) there will be a decrease in individual consumer autonomy which would hurt the economy.

This hypocritical over-extension is a gross effort to cut the federal deficit through the wrong avenues. Instead of aiming to cut $214 billion from federal food assistance programs over a decade, cut some of the nearly $600 billion spent annually on the military. There are viable alternatives to cutting the deficit, but they don’t align with Trump’s agenda.

On April 11, Trump signed an executive order that requires states to enforce, buttress and add additional work requirements for recipients of SNAP and similar programs. That is disgraceful. Cutting and reducing accessibility to social safety nets is the antithesis of effective poverty reduction, especially in regard to addressing food insecurity across the country. Taking away social nets will only exacerbate already existing problems.

However, long-term programs and projects that address unequal access to healthy food and education will lead to fewer people needing to rely on such assistance.

Trump’s mission to cut social assistance programs is another segment in a long history of class and racist governmental policies that place blame on marginalized communities.

That must end if America is to be great.

Dylan Metsch-Ampel, Lewiston