First – what’s going on (9.5 minutes)

THIS IS UNCONSCIONABLE!!!! It is almost unbelievable. Republicans are PURPOSELY imposing policies that will inflict real pain on real people. 42 million Americans including as many as 16 million CHILDREN are purposely having starvation policies forced on them. Can you think of anything more cruel.

There is money that has been appropriated and is there to be spent to stop this insanity, but the Felon In the White House illegally refuses to spend that appropriated money.

At the bottom of all this is a trillion dollar tax cut for the richest .1% of Americans. 

Also at the bottom of this is using this as a distraction from Trump’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and his pedophilia ring.

Can you imagine that? Using the starvation of American children to cover up Trump’s crimes. Republicans are morally bankrupt.

Call your Republican representative because that is all we have in Iowa and give them an earful. If you can call their local offices.

Paul Krugman had some very pointed words for Republicans earlier this week. From his substack post earlier in the week.

Here are four things you should know about the imminent hunger games. 

• This is a political decision — specifically, a Republican decision 

• The pain from lost food aid will, if anything, hurt Republican voters worse than Democrats 

• Despite what Republicans believe, SNAP recipients aren’t malingerers 

• Food stamps are an investment in the future

Despite the government shutdown, the SNAP program isn’t out of money. In fact, it has $5 billion in contingency funds, intended as a reserve to be tapped in emergencies. And if the imminent cutoff of crucial food aid for 40 million people isn’t an emergency, what is? The Department of Agriculture, which runs the program, also has the ability to maintain funding for a while by shifting other funds around. But Donald Trump has — quite possibly illegally — told the department not to tap those funds.

Furthermore, the Republican majority in the Senate could maintain aid by waiving the filibuster on this issue. They have done this on other issues — for example, to roll back California’s electric vehicle standard. But for today’s Republican Party, blocking green energy is more important than keeping 40 million Americans from going hungry.

Furthermore, passing legislation to keep food aid flowing would require that Mike Johnson, the speaker, call the House back into session – something which he refuses to do. While we don’t know for sure the reason behind Johnson’s refusal, there is widespread speculation that it’s to avoid swearing in the newly elected Arizona congresswoman Adelina Grijalva, who would supply the crucial vote needed to force an overall vote on releasing the Epstein files. It sounds crazy to say that Republicans are making children go hungry to protect pedophiles, but it’s actually a reasonable interpretation of the situation. 

{ed. note: my bolding}

An anonymous poster on Facebook summed it up this way:

“The failure of SNAP payments symbolizes a deeper national sickness: a society that has never fully committed to economic justice because it has never fully confronted the roots of inequality. 

Feeding the poor is not charity—it is a test of civilization.”

It is not the Democrats who are distorting policy for the purpose of starving kids and their parents. This lies squarely at the feet of Republicans. 

Call your representative – the numbers are along the side of the page. Let them know that they are not representing you when they allowed the Felon In the White House to illegally stop funding SNAP. They must do something! NOW!