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<\/p>\nAlain Stephens is an investigative reporter covering gun violence, arms trafficking, and federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For the second<\/span> time in a decade, Washington has shut itself down in a budget standoff, and ordinary Americans are quite literally paying the price. As of this writing, the federal government is in its second month of a shutdown, and 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps got nothing <\/a>on November 1 <\/a>\u2014 the first time in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program\u2019s 60-year history that benefits have been fully halted. Think about that: Millions of families woke up hungry because politicians in Washington couldn\u2019t do their jobs. It\u2019s nuts.<\/p>\n After public pleas of desperation and multiple court orders<\/a>, the Trump administration was forced to turn the food back on<\/a>, but it\u2019s now appealing <\/a>that ruling, whiplashing Americans facing acute scarcity and economic anxiety.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ve started to accept these crises as routine, like a new season of some twisted reality show. With each episode, the fatigue and fury of being used as political pawns only deepens. But this shutdown is different in a way. For the first time in modern American history, its leader is intentionally starving his own people.<\/p>\n In the United States, federal shutdowns have become de facto political theater \u2014 a reckless game of chicken that recurs with grim regularity. Since 1976, Congress has triggered 20 funding gaps resulting in 10 full or partial shutdowns<\/a>, with the longest stretching 35 days. What was once unthinkable has become almost seasonal. Autumn rolls around, and Americans brace for the familiar countdown to chaos: Will our representatives fund the government, or take it hostage?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The current saga began like so many before it: a clash of priorities and a collapse of governance. House Republicans pushed their budget cuts that would imperil health care; Senate Democrats insisted they would only vote to pass a budget that extended tax credits on health care and reversed Medicaid cuts<\/a>. Republicans lack the needed majority to have their way and refuse to compromise with Democrats. Neither would blink, so on October 1, the lights went out. Offices shuttered. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers were sent home or ordered to work without pay<\/a>. Lawmakers gave floor speeches<\/a> and media soundbites<\/a>, and went to politicking. But behind the grandstanding, real families<\/a> immediately began to hurt<\/a>.<\/p>\n For the first time in modern American history, its leader is intentionally starving his own people.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n To many on Capitol Hill, this is all just part of the show. A shutdown is treated as a leverage move, a stunt to score ideological points or appease extremist donors. In 2013, one senator read Dr. Seuss on the Senate floor<\/a> during a shutdown, as if it were storytime instead of a national crisis. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump quipped that unpaid federal workers should encourage his shutdown tactics<\/a>, while his commerce secretary mused that he didn\u2019t understand why unpaid workers were visiting food banks at all<\/a>. <\/p>\n These people behind mahogany desks don\u2019t feel the flames they fan. They still draw their salaries \u2014 yes, members of Congress still get paid during a shutdown<\/a> \u2014 while a janitor or a park ranger loses theirs. The disconnect would be darkly funny if it weren\u2019t so brutal. From the comfort of cushy offices, political strategists are already gaming out the next confrontation, like it\u2019s a chess match.<\/p>\n No group of Americans has been more cynically weaponized in this standoff than those who depend on SNAP. This isn\u2019t some fringe handout; it\u2019s the nation\u2019s largest anti-hunger program<\/a>, serving working-poor families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Shutting down the government has put these Americans directly in the crosshairs. When November arrived, nearly 42 million people who count on SNAP to eat were told there was no money for food assistance. Despite access to a $5 billion emergency<\/a> fund that the Trump administration refused to disburse, the program for the first time ever simply stopped.<\/p>\n Food aid quickly became a bargaining chip to extract concessions. Trump (back in office and seemingly emboldened by chaos) outright threatened hungry Americans on social media, declaring <\/a>that benefits \u201cwill be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government \u2026 and not before!\u201d In other words: We\u2019ll let your children starve until we get our way. Trump is using food as a weapon, and he\u2019s hardly hiding it.<\/p>\n Democratic leaders, for their part, tried a symbolic move to fund SNAP during the shutdown \u2014 only to be blocked by the Republican Senate majority, who accused them of political stunt-making<\/a>. \u201cKids and families are not poker chips or hostages,\u201d Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said<\/a>, decrying the \u201cunbelievably cruel\u201d reality that food aid was being held hostage by political games. Unbelievably cruel, indeed. To be absolutely clear, Republicans are holding Democrats to a dark arrangement: Give up extended health care tax credits<\/a> and preserve Trump\u2019s Medicaid cuts, or watch the poorest Americans go hungry.\u00a0<\/p>\n That people in a country this rich require such support is an outrage in itself and the result of decades of bipartisan governing that has harmed the poor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n At food pantries across the country, the lines began swelling almost immediately. Food banks from New York to Texas saw surging demand as low-income households \u2014 and even furloughed federal workers \u2014 scrambled to fill the void. States like New York hustled to release emergency funds<\/a>, and charities begged for donations to stave off mass hunger. The stopgaps will feed some, but they can\u2019t possibly replace SNAP\u2019s reach. A federal court ordered the Department of Agriculture to draw on contingency funds to ensure SNAP benefits are paid in November, but the ruling only provides a temporary remedy, not a long-term solution to the program\u2019s broader funding crisis.<\/p>\n It\u2019s pure absurdity: We live in one of the wealthiest countries on Earth, yet our leaders have engineered a method where millions can be cut off from food overnight as a negotiation tactic. That people in a country this rich require such support is an outrage in itself and the result of decades of bipartisan governing that has harmed the poor.<\/p>\n Our government has spent years subsidizing corporations that pay poverty wages while providing just enough aid to keep workers afloat \u2014 and then they freeze that critical aid. Republicans and Democrats <\/a>alike have failed to tackle the chronic issues of increased costs of rent<\/a>, housing<\/a>, food, and medical care, perpetually kicking the can down the road and placing ever-widening swaths of Americans at risk. Mega-employers like Walmart pay notoriously low wages that leave employees reliant on public assistance; in fact, Walmart\u2019s low-paid workers cost taxpayers<\/a> an estimated $6.2 billion a year in food stamps, Medicaid, and other help. It\u2019s a vicious cycle: Our policies prop up \u201cworking poverty\u201d with programs like SNAP, effectively incentivizing companies to keep wages down. Both parties haven\u2019t done enough to keep people off the brink, but one party<\/a> right now is pushing people off it.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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