(THE CONVERSATION) The Trump administration aims to slash spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, by US$193 billion over the next decade. Curbing SNAP’s reach is only one way that Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and other officials are trying to trim the safety net to save taxpayer dollars – while simultaneously boosting military spending. [...] the “error rate” for SNAP, at about 3 percent, is much lower than for Medicaid, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance and most other large-scale government programs. “Illegal trafficking,” when SNAP recipients sell their benefits for a reduced amount of cash to food retailers, amounts to only about 1 percent of the program’s total benefits, according to the USDA. [...] SNAP is an efficient and effective program that helps millions of vulnerable Americans. To accomplish the SNAP spending reductions, the Trump administration proposes dramatic structural changes, morphing SNAP from a federal program into a federal-state arrangement. The federal government funds 100 percent of SNAP benefits and shares administration costs with the states. Food assistance for pregnant women is associated with reduced obesity, hypertension and diabetes for their children years after they’re born. Because of SNAP’s income-based eligibility requirements, its caseloads track the unemployment and poverty rates. Economists estimate that each $5 the government spends on SNAP triggers $9 of economic activity and that every $1 billion in benefits creates roughly 9,000 jobs.