To Make America Healthy Again, Make SNAP Healthy

The American people sent a clear message in the last election: It’s time to make America healthy again. With that mandate, President Donald Trump has taken swift action to address a pressing national concern—our nation’s growing health crisis and the reckless spending that fuels it. One of the first critical steps in this mission was his commitment to appointing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

During Kennedy’s confirmation hearings in the Senate, he exposed alarming flaws in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Notably, he highlighted that 10 percent of the program’s budget is spent on sugary drinks like soda, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This fact alone underscores the pressing need for SNAP reform. 

The first federal food stamp program, launched in 1939 in the wake of the Great Depression, was designed to help low-income Americans access food by distributing farmers’ surplus commodities. Today’s SNAP has strayed far from this mission under the mismanagement of Washington bureaucrats. Unlike WIC, a targeted program for mothers and infants that prioritizes nutritious foods, SNAP squanders billions of taxpayer dollars on junk food and sugary drinks at the expense of participants’ health. 

This mismanagement is fueling America’s obesity crisis, increasing chronic disease, and burdening taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid and Medicare with skyrocketing healthcare costs. It is time to reform SNAP, restore accountability, and put the health of Americans first. 

That is why our office introduced the Healthy SNAP Act alongside then-Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) in 2023 and why we re-introduced the bill this Congress with Senator Mike Lee (R-UT). This legislation would prohibit the purchase of soft drinks, candy, ice cream, and prepared desserts with SNAP benefits. Let’s be clear: No one is saying that Americans can’t buy these products—but they should do so with their own money, not taxpayer funds. 

Today, over 42 million Americans—one in eight people—receive SNAP benefits. Over the next decade, the USDA estimates that taxpayers will spend more than $240 billion on junk food through SNAP, including over $60 billion on soda alone. This is an unsustainable financial drain on our nation and a direct contributor to America’s skyrocketing healthcare crisis. 

Some argue that allowing SNAP beneficiaries to buy unhealthy foods with federal benefits is compassionate. Nevertheless, the state of Americans’ health paints a different—and more troubling—reality.

More than 70 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese, 20 percent of children have obesity, and 53 percent of young adults do not qualify for our nation’s military because of poor health. One-third of American adults have pre-diabetes. Almost 10 percent of children have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which occurs when excessive fat accumulates in the liver, and can result in the organ’s failure. Our unhealthy lifestyles lead us to spend three times more per capita on health care than Italians while living five years fewer. 

These horrific figures place an enormous strain on public programs like Medicaid, in which one in four Americans—79 million people—are currently enrolled. At current rates, we are on track to spend a staggering $4.1 trillion through Medicaid and Medicare by 2033 on obesity-related diseases alone. 

How can we, in good conscience, call a program that actively contributes to such devastating health outcomes compassionate? Public policy that genuinely reflects our care for fellow Americans should encourage them to lead long, healthy, and fulfilling lives. Common sense legislation like the Healthy SNAP Act would do just that. 

If we are truly committed to Making America Healthy Again, we must take action now to reform SNAP, cut wasteful government spending, and prioritize the health and well-being of the American people.