Democratic leaders decry ‘unbelievably cruel’ move, saying ‘Trump is using food as a weapon’ during shutdown
Senate Republicans shot down a Democratic-led attempt to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Monday during the government shutdown – a move that heightens uncertainty for the 42 million Americans participating in the country’s biggest anti-hunger program.
Jeff Merkley, a Democratic senator, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, attempted to pass a resolution via unanimous consent that would have forced the Department of Agriculture to fund Snap benefits for the month of November.
But Republican senators objected, with John Barrasso, Senate majority whip, arguing that a solution toward ensuring those benefits lies in reopening the government.
Repugnicans don’t want to reopen the government. They want it closed so Trump has no oversight and can implement their 100 year plan for an American dictatorship.
And the Cons will just blame the Dems, and their fox “news” watching moron brigade will believe them.
I mean it’s worked well so far. These people know that they control the news that the majority of house districts see. That’s important.
Worked for Goebbels.
rebellion isn’t just for disney
america is fallen. were just in the death throes
The Republicans are starving children as leverage.
More proof that shutting down the government was the Republican’s intention all along.
“I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
-Grover Norquist, 2001
Well yeah. This is just cruelty for the sake of cruelty. They’re felling two systems they hate in one go.
What? Nothing here is evidence they want(ed) a shutdown. They’re refusing a SNAP funding bill because they want the poorly funded program to be leverage for reopening the government.
That they view feeding people, many of which are their own voters, as something that only Democrats care about shows their utter disinterest in supporting the rubes that vote for them, but none of this is part of some Republican master plan or advancing Republican causes.
It’s possible sure, but the leverage part makes less sense to me, like lets screw over mostly Republican districts as a threat to coerce Democrats to vote for the bill. It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Republicans have a lot more to lose with SNAP funding being cut than Democrats.
I think a simpler explanation is what you said. Republicans don’t want to spend money on poorer people.
Does starving ppl like this count as a type of genocide?
"Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;"
Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes | United Nations
You could certainly read it that way. The only counterargument I can think of is that this doesn’t target a specific genetic group, but instead a socioeconomic class. Probably time for a new term.
So, kids and the elderly get to eat 1.5 meals a day?
