On The Rick Smith Show, Rick discusses the harmful impact of SNAP cuts with Ismael Cid-Martinez, Economist at the Economic Policy Institute, showing how millions of families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities are threatened by ongoing funding reductions and government shutdowns.
Rick Smith Show
November 10, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average annual cost of infant care in New York is $17,361, or $1,447 per month.
Financial Times
November 10, 2025
The staff reductions across federal agencies hit veterans particularly hard because the government has a preference for hiring them, says Ben Zipperer, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Of the 89,700 federal employees in Illinois as of January, 17,600 were veterans. Zipperer says it’s unclear how many federal employees in Illinois have been affected by job cuts.
“We aren’t seeing exactly the large federal cuts in the data yet because many of these people may be on a leave situation and they haven’t been removed from payrolls,” Zipperer says. “But that’s coming. The Trump administration projects that federal government employment will fall by 300,000 by the end of the year.”
Crain's Chicago
November 10, 2025
For much of the 20th century, teaching was a stable, middle-class job in the U.S. Now it’s becoming a lot harder to survive on a teacher’s salary: Wages have been stagnant for decades, according to a study from the Economic Policy Institute, and teachers earn 5% less than they did a decade ago when adjusting for inflation.
This is Reno
November 10, 2025
That’s more than their mortgage payment, which comes in at $2,100 a month. It’s also an astronomical 32% of their income. According to an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis, “child care is more expensive than rent in 17 states and Washington, D.C.” (1)
MoneyWise
November 10, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute the purpose of the program is to supplement nutrition assistance for low-income households to assist adults in obtaining employment. The program was intended to restrict eligibility to those with limited liquid assets excluding house, vehicles, and bank accounts.
CT Examiner
November 10, 2025
Affordability measures the increase of income a family of two needs to make to have their first child in each county, according to January 2025 data from the Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator.
The Washington Post
November 10, 2025
It’s a demographic that relies heavily on SNAP, which provides food assistance for approximately 42 million Americans. According to the Economic Policy Institute, 23% of American Indian and Alaska Native households used SNAP benefits in 2023 — nearly double the national average.
NOTUS
November 10, 2025
The minimum wage’s purchasing power peaked in 1968, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In today’s dollars, that 1968 minimum wage would equal approximately $12 to $14 per hour when adjusted purely for inflation.
GO Banking Rates
November 10, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute’s estimate of latest week includes imputed values for New Mexico. Sources: U.S. Labor Department, Economic Policy Institute.
Barron’s
November 10, 2025