Recently, the US Senate passed a farm bill which includes significant cuts to the Food Stamp program, while the House of Representatives passed a bill which addresses farm subsidies, but does not include any mention of Food Stamps whatsoever. This was due to the failure of a previous bill to pass the House because significant numbers of Republican members thought it did not cut Food Stamps enough. The future of the Food Stamp program is still up in the air, as differences between the two legislative bodies must be reconciled before a bill can be passed by both and sent to the President for signature.

While the Senate bill is preferable to the House version that failed to pass because the cuts are not as severe, cuts are not warranted at all at this time. Claims by conservative legislators that the program is severely bloated and encourages dependency on government…