It is no secret that HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins have been campaigning to restore American health – sometimes even in controversial ways. But their views on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should be approached with wide-open, bipartisan arms. Removing food that is categorically unhealthy, will not only begin to restore our nation to a state of health, but bolster the economy and revive the American Dream for many who have given up on it.
Under a capitalist economy, market competition drives innovation, attracting customers and driving prices to consumer-affordable levels. Successful business rise to the top, while others die and are replaced by new innovative ideas that feed the cycle of competition by introducing new ideas to the marketplace.
But what happens to capitalism when competition dies?
Ideas stagnate and businesses that have experienced such immense success such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, are left meaningfully unopposed. When companies are not challenged, market prices climb, and Americans are left struggling to make ends meet. And when Americans are unable to participate in the economy, supply and demand dies, innovation becomes negligible in the hands of the already successful, and a positive feedback look of economic turmoil ensues.
Republicans, the party of the free market economy, have long used lower taxes as a way to successfully bring businesses back to America and stimulate economic regrowth. And though this does revive a spirit of competition by freeing up funds for innovative, start-up ventures, there is an entirely untapped path to further spur economic growth by looking at the link between the economy and American health.
The American Dream is centered around the idea of “upward mobility” – that individuals can climb the socioeconomic ladder and achieve better lives than the ones they once had. Individuals who are upwardly mobile are able to expend their free resources on contributing to the economy not only through investing financially, but by introducing new competition-fueling ideas.
A 2023 analysis by the American Enterprise Institute demonstrates that bettering one’s health, nutrition, and wellbeing, particularly via access to SNAP benefits, increases an individual’s upward mobility. When good nutrition is at the center of American Health, individuals are able to more effectively and meaningfully contribute to the workforce or engage educational opportunities.
According to the U.S. Economic Research Service under the USDA, 12.6% of Americans benefited from the SNAP program in 2023. While the program has certainly filled socioeconomic gaps for many Americans in need of extra support, the SNAP program is fundamentally flawed.
Those participating in the program are free to use their benefits for most any food item found in a grocery store. Many program participants try to pick up nutritious items on their first-of-the-month store run, but SNAP does not restrict using the benefits for categorically unhealthy items such as sodas, candy, or other highly processed foods that are known to contribute to chronic diseases and other poor health outcomes.
And while most Americans are in favor of their taxpayer dollars going to the SNAP program, they should not be required to subsidize the expanding chronic disease crisis and keep people dependent on SNAP. Americans are generous but want accountability – and that shouldn’t be too much to ask of the government.
Thankfully, U.S. agencies are finally siding with American health and advocating for responsible use of tax dollars.
Following the restrictions first enacted in Nebraska and now rapidly expanding to other states, the USDA has made historic approvals after previous administrations on both sides of the isle refused to allow similar restrictions stating, “No clear standards exist for defining foods as good or bad, or healthy or not healthy.” Now, Secretary Rollins and others are putting aside politics for the sake of our nation’s health.
As SNAP participants are redirected to more nutritious alternatives, many will need to spend less time receiving benefits to achieve the same positive outcomes and a heightened upward mobility.
But ultimately, the economy that has suffered since COVID under the Biden Administration will thank us.
Putting “nutrition” back in SNAP will allow for the newly-freed taxpayer dollars to stay in American wallets where they can be invested in the economy. Furthermore, individuals who have “graduated out” of the SNAP program will further market demand and contribute to capitalist competition and innovation.
If we want to renew our once great American economy, we have to look towards untapped solutions that expand individual economic freedoms. State by state, we must reform SNAP.
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