The federal government shutdown is laying naked the truth that the Republican Celebration is salivating on the likelihood to tear social-safety-net advantages away from the poorest People, whom they freely view as lazy ingrates.
A number of GOP lawmakers have been attacking food-stamp recipients in current days, as thousands and thousands feared they might not obtain Supplemental Diet Help Program funds in November attributable to GOP’s shutdown.
On Friday, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to make use of contingency funds to maintain this system operational.
Trump and his administration had argued they couldn’t use these funds, hoping {that a} funding lapse would make People blame Democrats for his or her struggles.
“There are 22 million American households receiving SNAP benefits for groceries, at $4200 per year on average. Try to get your head wrapped around how many pantries you can stock with $4200 dollars in properly shopped groceries,” Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana wrote in a submit on X on Thursday. “Any American who has been receiving $4200 dollars per year of free groceries and does NOT have at least 1 month of groceries stocked should never again receive SNAP, because wow, stop smoking crack.”
Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, proven in 2024.
Not solely is Higgins’ submit extremely offensive, accusing food-stamp recipients of being drug addicts, but it surely’s additionally simply fallacious.
If the typical family receives $4,200 a yr in meals stamps, as Higgins claims, meaning they get $350 a month for groceries. Even the Division of Agriculture admits that isn’t almost sufficient for a household of 4 to subsist on, estimating that the typical month-to-month meals value for a household of three on a low-cost funds is north of $850.
It wasn’t simply Higgins making disgusting feedback about food-stamp recipients.
Quite than introduce laws to make sure individuals are fed, GOP Rep. Randy Advantageous of Florida mentioned he would introduce a invoice to dam authorized immigrants from getting meals stamps.
In the meantime, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves—whose state has 384,800 residents, or 13% of its inhabitants, on SNAP—introduced on Friday that he would additional restrict what meals help may buy. It’s an insane time to make that announcement as a whole bunch of hundreds of his personal constituents concern going hungry.
Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, proven in 2023.
“[W]e’re amending our food stamp rules to allow good sustaining food like rotisserie chickens and disallow sugary candy and drinks,” Reeves wrote in a submit on X. “If the first ingredient is sugar or corn syrup, it won’t be available with taxpayer money any more.”
Much more insane is what Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins mentioned on Friday earlier than the judges’ order. She claimed that even when a federal decide advised the Trump administration that the contingency funds Congress appropriated for SNAP might be used through the shutdown, she wasn’t positive the administration would launch the cash. In different phrases, the Trump administration would purposefully starve individuals for no motive aside from political retribution.
“We’re all of the choices,” Rollins mentioned when requested if the Trump administration would comply with a court docket order to launch the SNAP contingency funds.
Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, mentioned Rollins’ remark gave away Trump and the GOP’s complete sport.
“‘We are happy that this is considered a permissible use of these funds and will promptly release them to make sure no one goes hungry’ is actually very easy to say but so far they just won’t and it’s hard not to conclude that they are determined to withhold food aid,” Schatz wrote in a submit on X.
Republicans have already made main cuts to the social security internet, slashing Medicaid and meals stamps within the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that the GOP handed this summer season.
Now, they’re utilizing the shutdown to trigger poor individuals much more ache.
For Republicans, cruelty has all the time been the purpose.
