If you ask pretty much any conservative, they will tell you that the government shutdown and all its blowback is entirely the Democrats' fault.
This includes the cancellation of SNAP benefits, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program previously known as "food stamps," beginning in November, which will cut off access to food to millions of people.
That this is Democrats' fault is propaganda and a bold-faced lie. Republicans control the entire government, and Democrats are refusing to cave to them in order to save the health insurance subsidies the GOP also wants to cut.
But there is another detail to the story that conservatives would have us believe they are totally unaware of: billions of dollars in emergency funding for SNAP is just sitting there, all the time.
But as Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow explained in a fiery speech this week, the Trump administration has simply decided to pretend it doesn't exist—even going so far as to delete the verbiage about the funding.
The emergency contingency fund for SNAP totals just under $6 billion, and it is by law meant to be used for precisely situations such as the one we're now in.
As McMorrow explained:
"There are years worth of funding available for the SNAP program. Our tax dollars that we have already paid to the federal government to facilitate this program."
But the Trump administration has illegally decided to say no to using it—and have deleted the evidence that it exists.
"The Trump administration deleted this language from the website this morning."
"They are hiding the fact that not only is there more than enough funding to pay these benefits that we have already paid our tax dollars into, but that there was contingency language to ensure that even in the event of a government shutdown, that SNAP would go uninterrupted."
Knowing how this administration operates, we can't even be certain that money even exists anymore and hasn't ended up in Trump's pockets. Or Putin's, or Argentinian President Milei's, for that matter.
McMorrow went on to cast this appalling move as a choice to purposefully starve Americans.
"The Trump administration and the Republicans supporting him are using food as a political weapon."
"This is a choice. They chose to delete this language. They are choosing to force children to go hungry."On social media, many applauded McMorrow for her blunt take on the SNAP situation.
McMorrow's speech was given during debate at the Michigan state house over a resolution to use state funds to replace SNAP until the shutdown ends.
Michigan is one of several states attempting such an end-run around federal funding to ensure its citizens do not starve.
Michigan is also among the more than two dozen Democratic Governors and Attorneys General who are suing the federal government over the halting of SNAP funding.
McMorrow, who hails from the Detroit suburb of Royal Oak, is running for the U.S. Senate next year, to replace Democratic Senator Gary Peters, who is retiring.
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