Food Stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), has endured and expanded in recent years. The program has been preserved and in some cases enhanced as a result of its inclusion in the Farm Bill, being characterized as a safety net of last resort and as a program for the deserving poor.

This book explores attempts to reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. It argues that a growing focus on punitive policies attempts to characterize SNAP recipients as undeserving of governmental assistance. The book explores three areas of reform efforts: attempts to limit the types of food that can be purchased, attempts to implement drug testing, and attempts to restrict Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) from accessing SNAP. These attempts at reform highlight the ways that reformers view SNAP recipients as not deserving of assistance. This book argues that these reform efforts are based on conceptions of the deserving and undeserving poor rather than concrete data about SNAP recipients, and warns that if states are allowed greater flexibility SNAP could be reformed in a way that significantly reduces enrollment and leaves many Americans without a safety net.

Republican presidents have navigated between popular programs and conservative supporters since the Eisenhower administration, and since the New Deal, Republican presidents have looked for ways to accommodate rather than abolish the federal social safety net. Yet moderation often led to a backlash from their conservative supporters, leading Republican presidents to move from accommodation to opposition. Richard Nixon went from proposing innovative policies to vetoing comprehensive child care legislation. George W. Bush's compassionate conservatism was jettisoned for an attempt at Social Security reform. In From Moderation to Backlash, each Republican president since the New Deal is explored with a particular focus on the third rail of American politics: Social Security.