SNAP Benefits and the Politics of Cruelty

 To be very blunt, the federal government has the the contingency emergency funds in the amount of 5-6 billion dollars available and the legal authority and historical record to provide funding for SNAP benefits during the current government shutdown.  Any statement otherwise is a lie -- pure and simple deception.

The current budget bill had already cut benefits and the administration's refusal to fund SNAP, which has evolved since 1961 and existed in another form from 1933 to 1943, during the shut down will deprive 42 million Americans of whom approximately 40% are children and further composed of the disabled, senior citizens, and the families which care for them.  This will particularly affect Republican states and their Republican constituents.  It will also negatively affect GDP by approximately $7 billion with reduced spending at local food stores and supermarkets on top of a $7 to 14 billion government shutdown affect on GDP.

Trying to blame Democrats who are trying, in the only way available to them, to condition a new continuing resolution, which is not clean in the actual use of appropriated funds, to continue affordable health insurance under the ACA which were cut in the "Big Beautiful Bill" and would raise premiums an average of 114% if the 2025 subsidies were not continued, affecting 15 million people.  The shut down will also not fund LIHEAP, senior citizen housing subsidies, WIC, and Headstart.

While some states are making efforts to provide some funding and support while others are not, two Federal judges have ordered the Federal government to use the contingency emergency funds.  However, this administration always appeals legal rulings and delays taking action and has ignored the appropriation uses and amounts approved by Congress.  Children, the disabled, senior citizens, and families will go with the economic resources to buy food and stay marginally healthy.

Children, the disabled, senior citizens, and the families which care for them are now being held hostage by a Republican administration, a Republican House of Representatives, and a Republican Senate to deny American families affordable health insurance.  This is the Country in which we now live.

 

 

 

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