COMMENTARY: Putting safety-net spending back on a pre-pandemic path

By Jeremy Nighohossian InsideSources.com August 15, 2026 - 9:00 pm Congress enacted some of the biggest reforms to two of America’s welfare programs in decades — the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly referred to as food stamps, and Medicaid, which provides health care for one in four low-income Americans. Critics may argue the paring-back reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill are cruel and unnecessary, but in reality, the reforms will resize these programs back toward pre-pandemic levels. During the pandemic, many government programs blasted past their historic norms and were set on a higher-cost orbit. Afterward, several programs never returned to Earth. The reforms are an attempt to re-ground those costs, if only partially. While many politicians refer to the fun