There used to be a word for that. From the Associated Press (AP),
Judge questions the Trump administration’s plan to suspend SNAP benefits for millions.
As you know, the federal government has been shut down for the past 30 days. Funding ran out. It was defunded. Senate Democrats refuse to authorize the federal government to operate, to spend any money.
Federal law enforcement agencies have a separate spending authority and budget as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Pres. Trump has made it a priority to scrape enough funding together to pay the militarty for the past month. In doing so, Democrats say he broke the law.
As for the rest of the government, it has ceased to exist. Federal workers did not get paid this month. They are not authorized to work.
But a federal district judge based in Boston knows better. From the AP,
[Judge] Talwani said she expects to issue a ruling later Thursday and seemed to be leaning toward requiring the government to put billions of dollars in emergency funds toward SNAP.
U.S. Senate Democrats voted the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) out of existence. So, where will these billions come from, and how much is there?
President Donald Trump’s administration said it wasn’t allowed to use a contingency fund with about $5 billion in it for the program.
So the judge (an Obama appointee) thinks she has the authority to force USDA employees, who aren’t authorized to work, and who aren’t getting paid, to show up to the office and find some way of paying out food stamps.
The AP quotes the judge during today’s hearing,
If you don’t have money, you tighten your belt. You are not going to make everyone drop dead because it’s a political game someplace.
Who, exactly is “you” in the above quote? The Dept. of Justice lawyers? President Trump? Senate Democrats? Laid off USDA bureaucrats?
And who will take the blame for the genocide this weekend of the 42 million food-stampless people?
The AP notes,
SNAP, which costs about $8 billion per month, serves about 1 in 8 Americans and is a major piece of the nation’s social safety net.
$8 billion is greater than $5 billion. So, it would seem that the genocide of millions cannot be avoided, however the judge rules.
The plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit that failing to maintain the SNAP funding would hurt public health, make it harder for children to learn in school, drive up government health care expenditures and hurt the retailers that rely on SNAP payments.
So why didn’t the plaintiff sue Senate Democrats?
