After 43 days, the longest US government shutdown in history which ”forced around 1.4 million federal employees to go without pay for weeks” has finally ended. Though the shutdown had, of course, caused a whole range of widespread concerns, the most alarming (and ongoing) repercussion of the US government’s polarisation and ineffectiveness is the SNAP crisis. Or, even more frighteningly, what it shows us about the priorities of the current administration.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is “America’s largest anti-hunger program [providing] supplemental food benefits for over 40 million people”. It is a crucial program supporting the most economically and socially vulnerable of Americans, from low income families to veterans to the disabled. To cut its funds is to plunge American society into a crisis of food (and therefore also further health and economic) insecurity.
Though the Trump administration did finally agree to provide partial benefits for the program on delay, its shameless statements trying to, yet again, blame this whole mess on the Democrats, and its representatives’ previous claims that there was little they could do to help, say a lot about just how much this cabinet would have neglected the issue if it weren’t for opposing federal court pressures. This neglect of the public is especially blatant when we account for Trump having embraced millions in funds from a donor to support paying military salaries during the shutdown.
The government shutdown having ended isn’t the point; it is that the administration’s prioritisation of supporting the military over millions of starving and impoverished American citizens while it was happening clearly outlines the cruelty of its goals. And I say cruelty intentionally, because starvation is a known tactic of control and violence, and hunger is a weapon that should not be underestimated.
A government shutdown is the perfect excuse to justify limiting resources to the public because it allows them to claim that there’s ‘nothing they can do’, or at least that what they can do is very limited until the budget is sorted. Particularly amid the ‘No Kings’ protests taking place across the US and the general anti-Trump sentiments emerging among the American public, physically weakening millions by restricting their food access (while simultaneously prioritising its military) would subsequently allow the government to tighten, or at least symbolically establish, its authoritative control over the openly-dissatisfied population.
After months of mass layoffs of federal employees, slashing government spending, and a 43-day long government shutdown which has caused critical, ongoing damage to the public, the message is clear: they want to strengthen the military, bypass checks and balances, and weaken the public.
Federal court pressures are a good first step, but the SNAP benefit cuts and delays will nonetheless likely be catastrophic for millions of Americans. And although there may not be much we can do, talking about this crisis is crucial to spread awareness, and to push for increased resistance on an international scale.
“Donald Trump Sr. at #FITN in Nashua, NH” by Michael Vadon is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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US Government Shutdown: The Blatant Cruelty of the SNAP Crisis
After 43 days, the longest US government shutdown in history which ”forced around 1.4 million federal employees to go without pay for weeks” has finally ended. Though the shutdown had, of course, caused a whole range of widespread concerns, the most alarming (and ongoing) repercussion of the US government’s polarisation and ineffectiveness is the SNAP crisis. Or, even more frighteningly, what it shows us about the priorities of the current administration.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is “America’s largest anti-hunger program [providing] supplemental food benefits for over 40 million people”. It is a crucial program supporting the most economically and socially vulnerable of Americans, from low income families to veterans to the disabled. To cut its funds is to plunge American society into a crisis of food (and therefore also further health and economic) insecurity.
Though the Trump administration did finally agree to provide partial benefits for the program on delay, its shameless statements trying to, yet again, blame this whole mess on the Democrats, and its representatives’ previous claims that there was little they could do to help, say a lot about just how much this cabinet would have neglected the issue if it weren’t for opposing federal court pressures. This neglect of the public is especially blatant when we account for Trump having embraced millions in funds from a donor to support paying military salaries during the shutdown.
The government shutdown having ended isn’t the point; it is that the administration’s prioritisation of supporting the military over millions of starving and impoverished American citizens while it was happening clearly outlines the cruelty of its goals. And I say cruelty intentionally, because starvation is a known tactic of control and violence, and hunger is a weapon that should not be underestimated.
A government shutdown is the perfect excuse to justify limiting resources to the public because it allows them to claim that there’s ‘nothing they can do’, or at least that what they can do is very limited until the budget is sorted. Particularly amid the ‘No Kings’ protests taking place across the US and the general anti-Trump sentiments emerging among the American public, physically weakening millions by restricting their food access (while simultaneously prioritising its military) would subsequently allow the government to tighten, or at least symbolically establish, its authoritative control over the openly-dissatisfied population.
After months of mass layoffs of federal employees, slashing government spending, and a 43-day long government shutdown which has caused critical, ongoing damage to the public, the message is clear: they want to strengthen the military, bypass checks and balances, and weaken the public.
Federal court pressures are a good first step, but the SNAP benefit cuts and delays will nonetheless likely be catastrophic for millions of Americans. And although there may not be much we can do, talking about this crisis is crucial to spread awareness, and to push for increased resistance on an international scale.
“Donald Trump Sr. at #FITN in Nashua, NH” by Michael Vadon is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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