In a SNAP, Trump blamed for blocking food assistance to low-income families

Let's put politics aside as if that were workable and look at how the craziness of the last sparse days is affecting people A week ago President Donald Trump reported that the million Americans on the SNAP nutrition initiative would not be getting their benefits this against the backdrop of a authorities shutdown that has now reached its th day This against the backdrop of millions of federal workers who have not been paid while the shutdown drags on and multiple of whom live paycheck to paycheck This against the backdrop of Trump throwing a lavish Great Gatsby-themed Mar-a-Lago bash where guests in formal wear watched opera and feasted on blue cheese mousse sliced beef filet seared scallops and Trump chocolate cake TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CITES WIDESPREAD MISUSE OF SNAP AS FUNDING LAPSES DURING SHUTDOWNMeanwhile a federal judge ordered the administration to resume SNAP benefits which cost billion a month but the Supreme Court gave Trump time to appeal And when at least nine states revealed they would pay for SNAP benefits during the situation Trump ordered them to promptly undo any effort to provide food stamps to lower-income families or face financial penalties Let s see how does this make the president look I hate this word but what are the optics of this determined effort to stop these benefits from reaching hungry families After all when a wealthy donor pal Timothy Mellon a banking and railroad heir offered million to ensure that American troops get paid during the shutdown Trump seized the opportunity After all the Trump tax cut was tilted toward the wealthy After all Trump has further cut capital gains taxes on home sales that will mostly benefit the affluent and wealthy enabling countless to pay zero or a reduced rate on these sales If you are totally unaware of this you seemingly don t qualify TRUMP ADMIN WARNS MILLION AMERICANS COULD LOSE FOOD STAMPS AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ONAfter all this may have been the weirdest thing Trump revealed Obamacare is so terrible that he wants to send people checks so they can buy their own insurance But where would they buy it if not from an insurance company And what would they do if the stock region plunged There's a reason that privatization of physical condition insurance has never gone anywhere So to come back to politics inevitably how does any of this help Trump I get the notion that he's trying to boost the pain level so that Democrats will end the shutdown on his terms The Democrats who have made soaring Obamacare premiums a central part of their pitch and fear millions will lose coverage unless expiring subsidies are extended have hung on longer than anyone expected For what it s worth both sides deserve a ton of blame for failing to keep the lights on during this endless blame challenge rather than work out a compromise which is what we pay them to do But don't Trump and JD Vance who called the judge s order absurd look like they don t particularly care if millions of families go hungry or are taking food from dumpsters Seriously is there an alternative explanation DOJ ACCUSES FEDERAL JUDGE OF MAKING MOCKERY OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS IN SNAP APPEALBlaming the other side is fine for the usual political fun and games But doing it during this kind of self-inflicted dilemma With the opposition throwing out charges of cruelty is there a few nine dimensional chess level on which this helps Trump Trump says former President Joe Biden went totally crazy and handed out food stamps to anybody that would ask So is this liberalism gone wild I decided to do a little digging Turns out there are income limits and those in the scheme must meet work requirements What s more the oft-repeated charge that illegal immigrants are getting SNAP benefits is just untrue though there are exemptions for children and refugees Obviously you can never wholly rule out instances of fraud During the pandemic when unemployment soared Congress passed an crisis measure that temporarily suspended a work requirement for adults without dependents who were capable of holding jobs This happened under President Trump in his first term in Under a deal with Republicans in work requirements for SNAP were increased That happened under Biden Certain Republicans meanwhile disclosed the measure didn t go far enough By the way SNAP participation peaked in the fall of under Trump which was related to hurricane emergencies Sorry for the green-eyeshade stuff but I thought it was worth more research Majority people don t have the time or interest in excavating the details They just know they aren t getting the food aid they expected and that neither are millions of other lower-income families And especially with his dogged determination to block the states from helping out various are holding Trump accountable