mBOLDen Change Safety Net Simulator Shows Real Household Impact of 2025 Federal Budget Cuts
The Californer/10339704

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Californer -- mBOLDen Change, a nonprofit focused on equity, economic security, and community safety nets, launched the Safety Net Simulator on February 19, 2026 — a free interactive tool that shows how federal safety net cuts under the 2025 federal budget law (Public Law 119-21) affect household budgets in concrete, lived terms.

The Safety Net Simulator puts users at the kitchen table with five composite households — including a single-parent working family, a retired couple on fixed income, a two-parent working family with children, and a mixed-status immigrant family — and walks them through policy rounds tied to cuts in SNAP (food assistance), Medicaid, housing assistance, childcare subsidies, and other federal programs. Users face the same tradeoffs millions of families are navigating: food versus medication, childcare versus rent, utilities versus healthcare. The tool adjusts for regional cost of living, showing how the same federal cuts create very different household impacts depending on where a family lives.

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"Policy debates about SNAP cuts, Medicaid reductions, and housing assistance rarely translate what those numbers mean inside a household budget," said Minh Ngo, Executive Director and Board Chair of mBOLDen Change. "We built the Safety Net Simulator to make those tradeoffs visible and human — to help people understand that cuts to federal programs are not abstract budget line items. They are impossible choices that real families have to make every month."

Early users describe the experience as visceral. "It helps people see, feel, and understand the real impact of bad policies," said one participant.

The simulator is a narrative and public education resource based on modeled, illustrative estimates using CBO scoring and federal program data. It is not a benefits calculator, does not provide individualized benefit determinations, and results will vary by state and household details. Key features include five preset households with detailed monthly budgets, a regional cost-of-living adjustment, a custom household builder, a household stability tracker, and a results screen summarizing final impacts after all policy changes.

The Safety Net Simulator is available to anyone at www.mboldenchange.org/simulator.