At a farm market in St. Petersburg, Florida, SNAP recipients were able to use their Electronic Benefits Transfer cards for food. (Photo by Lance Cheung/USDA).

It’s hard to fathom in a proposal that includes billions upon billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but one of the most significant changes included in the massive budget bill approved by the U.S. House late last month was this: big cuts to the nation’s main anti-hunger program.

Under the legislation, millions of people would lose SNAP food assistance benefits. Meanwhile, states would be saddled with 14 billion dollars in new costs.

And the impacts will be felt in the stomachs of families across the nation.

As Raleigh-area Congresswoman Deborah Ross explained last week, in her district – one of the state’s more affluent ones  – 20,000 of her adult constituents will lose all of their SNAP benefits.

Statewide, a total of almost half a million people will lose benefits and the cuts will ripple through grocery stores and the economy as a whole.

The bottom line: Rep. Ross is right. The Republican budget will cause irreparable harm to the people of our state. All caring and thinking North Carolinians should support her effort to push back.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.