Armstrong Williams did a great service to all in helping us understand the problems with the SNAP program (“The uncomfortable truth about SNAP,” Nov. 4). As stated, the program was never meant to be permanent. However, people over the years work that into their permanent budget and become dependent on it. They depend on it for daily sustenance.
How to fix the program is easy. Set the date for the termination of the program and then make a cut each year. An example would be the program terminates in five years, so starting next year, the program will be cut 20%. Instead of $187 a month, next year they will receive roughly $37 less and so on till it expires in five years. Little by little, they will be weaned off of SNAP, realizing it is going away.
As is happening now, the city of Baltimore, the state and counties are stepping up to fill the gap left by the federal SNAP program, and if they decide to continue the program under a five-year termination, then it will be up to them to fund it from their own budgets, or other programs currently in operation can step up and fill the gap. The answer is to supply enough jobs to enable those who depend on SNAP to become independent from it. Those unable to work should be eligible for other programs for support. No one, however, should go hungry.
— Stas Chrzanowski, Baltimore
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