[ad_1]
Erica Werner
A Congressional Journalist Interest in Economic Policy
Food coupons meant for 38 million low-income Americans would faced with severe cuts and tax refunds in excess of $ 140 billion are being risked to be frozen or delayed if the government closure extends until February, widespread disturbances threatening to harm to the economy
The Trump administration, which had not planned a long-term closure, has acknowledged that the magnitude of the potential consequences this week. , several senior administration officials said. Officials said that they were now trying to understand the magnitude of the consequences and to determine if they could do anything to intervene.
Thousands of federal programs are affected by the closure, but few people affect the public as much as the tax. nutritional support system complementary to the Ministry of Agriculture, the current version of food coupons.
The partial closure cut new funding from the Treasury Department and the USDA, leaving them largely unused and crippling the ability of both departments to perform their core tasks.
Potential cuts in food stamps and the suspension of tax refunds illustrate the dire consequences of leaving much of the federal government unfunded for an indefinite period – a scenario that became more likely on Friday when President Trump announced that he would let the government shut down for months, if not years, unless the Democrats give him money to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. [19659008] The SNAP program is rare among federal initiatives because it requires annual congressional funding, but its existence is automatically renewed.
Congress did not allocate funds to SNAP beyond January and the program's emergency reserves would not even cover two-thirds of the funds. February payments, based on previous disbursements. Last September, the last month for which data are available, SNAP provided $ 4.7 billion in benefits to beneficiaries in all US states.
Last year, legislators allocated $ 3 billion to a reserve fund for the SNAP. USDA officials would not comment on the $ 3 billion, but if all that money was still available, it would cover 64% of the February bonds.
Agency officials did not specify how they would remedy the shortfall, including
If the closure continues until March, there would be nothing left for the benefits .
"We are currently reviewing the options for SNAP," said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture. "The best solution would be for Congress to pass on to the president a legitimate appropriations bill to terminate funding."
During the closure, the USDA office that administers the SNAP sent home 95 percent of his employees without remuneration. , according to an organization chart on the ministry's website.
"People in this country will be hungry," said Representative Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.). "It's simple, they are hungry … they are working people, we are not talking about people who are bothering them."
The disruption would affect both families who benefit from it. help, grocers and other retailers where the money is spent.
The Treasury Department officials are trying to determine what to do with the flood of tax claims that will arrive next month.
The Internal Revenue Service has sent home nearly 90% of its staff without pay, ahead of an extremely busy period for the tax agency. 19659019] From late January to March 2, 2018, the IRS paid tax refunds of $ 147.6 billion to 48.5 million households. This money could be frozen in the IRS if repayments were blocked.
Early last year, as part of its contingency planning for eventual closures by the government, the IRS said it was not going to happen. would issue no refund of tax during a closure. Treasury officials and the IRS have not announced that they will completely suspend all tax refunds next month, but a senior administration official said that these disbursements would be seriously affected and probably slowed down if they were paid.
Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday asking him to detail the consequences of the job cuts in Canada. the IRS and determine how the tax reporting period would be handled at closing.
"Please confirm whether the IRS will issue federal tax refunds at any time during the government's closed period," the letter says. "If yes, please indicate the expected date of repayment by the IRS."
This could have an immediate impact on the economy as well as on the finances of millions of Americans who often spend their tax refunds shortly after receiving them. Treasury officials and the IRS should announce a plan in the coming days, said people familiar with the process.
According to a normal calendar, income tax returns for income earned in 2018 would be due on April 15th. People who expect to receive a tax refund – meaning that they have overpaid their taxes last year – tend to deposit them as soon as possible to quickly recover the funds. .
"It would be a huge political and economic shock for people waiting to be reimbursed $ 2,500 or $ 3,000 without power to get that money," said Mark Mazur, a former senior security official. The IRS who served in the Treasury under the Obama administration.
Trump said he was ready to keep the agencies closed as long as necessary to force the Democrats to appropriate them billions of dollars for building walls along the Mexican border, but some Republicans have said they are not comfortable with this approach and several this week have joined the Democrats in their efforts to reopen their borders. The scale of the consequences also reflects a deep disconnect between Trump, which has largely encouraged prolonged action, Mr. Trump said Friday that "if we have to stay out of the country for a very long time, we will do it, "Trump said Friday.
] White House officials have not fully informed lawmakers of the growing consequences of the government's closure, which has resulted in confusion as to what is happening each week.
Neal said that the IRS was planning to bring its employees back to work in the coming weeks. help deal with tax returns, but that's hard to know how the agency will proceed. These employees would be forced to work without pay unless Congress passes an emergency funding law. He said that delays in tax refunds would lead to "more anger, for something that can be solved".
Rep. Mark Meadows (RN.C.), a high-ranking Conservative of the House who had applauded Trump's approach to political confrontation, said he did not know it would have an impact on the benefits of the SNAP program.
He was convinced that this money would be automatically used. by the Congress; "Food stamps are always used," he said.
This is not the case, according to several officials of the administration.
Meadows said that he "did not downplay the potential consequences of a closure," said the president. The situation as a whole could be easily solved if the Democrats allocated billions of dollars to the border wall.
The government shutdown began on December 22 after Trump blocked a bipartisan agreement to fund many federal agencies until February 8 because he wanted more than $ 5 billion. build 200 km of wall along the border
During his campaign and earlier under his presidency, Trump said that the wall would be paid by Mexico. This has not been the case.
The closure began with a sharp impact, cutting funds to pay 800,000 federal employees, closing national parks and museums and limiting the services provided by the federal government. Workers should begin to feel the consequences of closure more brutally next week: they will miss their first paychecks on Jan. 11 if a resolution is not found.
"A month later, we will see people begin to be deported and their cars start to be seized," said David Borer, General Counsel at the American Federation of Government Employees, who represents 750,000 federal employees. 19659036] And a much larger part of the federal bureaucracy should begin.The stop of negotiations took place in February, in the absence of a resolution.
Nonprofit groups have been able to raise money to keep some parts of government open for several weeks, but it's hard to know how long they will be able to keep, and no one has tried to replicate the level of funding who would be lost if SNAP ran out of money or if tax refunds were blocked.
"It's scary, really scary," said Lyman Hafen, executive director Zion National Park in Utah, non-profit partner of one of the most picturesque parks in the country. "It's not a good situation without this support. We take it just one day at a time, one week at a time. "
The cumulative impact of these changes could have a major impact on the economy.
Joseph Brusuelas, Chief Economist at RMS US, a consulting and accounting firm, said that An extended shutdown would reduce US economic growth by one percentage point, in part because of a "tax on uncertainty" that would freeze household and business spending.
know what's going to happen regarding their own income … there will be a withdrawal on the purchase of expensive items, "he said. in software, equipment and capital. "
[ad_2]
Source link
