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IF Americans are starving Nothing will stop Republicans and Democrats from being forced to return to the negotiating table to end the government shutdown.
And it looks like there will be no relief for the hungry families. On Wednesday, there was a heated exchange between Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits not being disbursed on the first of the month in the Senate.
Lujan has a separate bill from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who has a bill to preserve benefits they received during the shutdown. Lujan’s bill would also allow continued funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Lujan criticized the Trump administration for this Removing Contingency Plan for SNAP from its website,
“I know the difference between good soil and the bulls*** that live in it,” he said during a press conference. Later during the floor debate, Thune raised his voice and accused Democrats of dishonesty.
“What the Democrats are doing here is they are planning to continue the shutdown, and they suddenly realize in 29 days that this is a real consequence, real-life pain for American families,” the usually mild-mannered Thune said on the floor.
Thune’s statement basically eliminates any possibility that there will be any relief for starving people. This possibility has become even less likely with House Speaker Mike Johnson keeping the House out of session. People will go without food while everyone pretends to care about SNAP.
But this whole exchange smells of manure and is only half useful.
As inside washington Earlier this week, Thune implored Democrats to shut down the government may seem more honest didn’t he start Through a bill that included massive restrictions on SNAP, Which included reducing the age for children to be considered dependent to 14 years. Forcing states with high error rates to bear the cost Of the programme.
It might have been more honest if his conference hadn’t included a big blueprint for those requirements to bribe Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to vote for the bill.
Murkowski said Independent SNAP provisions should force people to negotiate this week, even as the federal labor union said the shutdown needs to end.
“And so if there is something that is a motivating factor, I think it’s not that unions have changed, maybe, but you have this date that is very important,” she said.
Then again, Murkowski’s words might have been more sincere if she actually tried to force Thune’s hand by building a coterie of senators to craft a compromise, then do what the Senate does best: shove it down the Senate’s throat.
The hands of the Democrats are not clean in this matter. Thune may be disingenuous, but he’s not wrong.
“And as a pastor, I’m thinking about the families over the next few days who will suffer as a result of the games played by politicians,” Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who once relied on the program growing up, told Independent,
Warnock said, “Let’s be clear, the Trump administration wants to use hungry children as pawns in a political game. I think it’s absolutely reprehensible, but I will do everything I can.” Independent,
But Democrats need to know that when they decide to block ongoing proposals to reopen the government, an adventurous new Trump will play hardball and try to bleed them.
Yes, the Agriculture Department had a contingency plan for SNAP, and yes, Trump kept SNAP running during the 2018-2019 shutdown. They had to expect that Trump, along with Project 2025 mastermind Russell Vought, would use their executive authority recklessly, and they must have calculated.
If they’ve decided that letting Trump cut food for hungry families would be a worthwhile fight in the name of saving health care, then they should simply say they’ve made that calculation and not point fingers.
And of course, the President deserves more blame than anyone else. The Trump administration decided not to continue the aid. Trump, at any moment, could force Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries into a room, force each of them to give up something, rather than give them everything they wanted and end the shutdown.
Instead, the President is in Asia and is tearing down the East Wing to make room for his ballroom. Nothing happens in Washington without Trump’s consent and he is perfectly content to starve many Americans, including many of his most ardent supporters.
To borrow from Lujan, if someone was honest about curbing hunger, they would cut through the BS and get straight to work.