About 42 million Americans – including 16 million children – stand to lose federal food assistance on Saturday as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) expires amid the government shutdown, and Republican lawmakers and officials are scrambling to shift blame away from President Donald Trump.
“If 42 million Americans go hungry, it won’t be because of what the White House did, it was because we didn’t pass the budget,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), NOTUS reported Tuesday. Hawley, who’s among the Trump’s strongest supporters in the Senate, is not the only Republican working to help lessen the political fallout from tens of millions of Americans being left without food assistance.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” reads the website for the Trump administration’s Agriculture Department Bottom line.
“The well has run dry," the website adds. "At this time, there will be no benefits issued Nov. 1. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.”
Now on its 28th day, the ongoing government shutdown kicked off on Oct. 1 after Congress members reached a deadlock over Obamacare subsidies. Republicans pushed for a proposal to extend government spending at its current level for several weeks, whereas Democrats have held firm in refusing to support any funding measure that doesn’t include extending the subsidies.
Now, as food assistance is set to lapse for millions of Americans, Republicans have ramped up their defense of Trump in an effort to shift blame elsewhere, namely on Democratic lawmakers.