TRUMP CAN FIX THIS. HE CHOOSES NOT TO

Speaker Johnson has canceled House business again next week. Over the last 17 weeks, the House will have worked just 20 days. So they will not be back at work before November 1, when at least 25 states have said they will not be able to provide the continuation of SNAP benefits more than 42M Americans rely on to put food on the table. The majority of people on SNAP are seniors, people with disabilities and children. The Trump administration has already shown it has the capacity to fund certain programs even while the government is shut down. Earlier this month, the WH announced it was providing the WIC program with $300M. Though questionable, the administration has been using magic to pay workers at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Trump is also funding his policy priorities. Immigration enforcement continues being paid despite the funding lapse. And there’s the SNAP contingency fund that can be used when there’s a shortfall for whatever reason, that the administration could tap into. This fund has two-thirds of what’s needed to provide a full month of SNAP benefits. But USDA said it would not be tapping into those resources, saying it was only for emergencies that happen “quickly” and with “no notice.” The Trump administration has also said it will not use those funds. Instead, USDA has instructed states to withhold November benefits. But has supplied little info beyond that. In the meantime, Trump continues to tell the GOP Congress not to negotiate with Democrats on any of this. So while Trump continues on his way to war with another country, his intent to murder anyone on the high seas he deems a threat, destruction of a visible symbol of America, and invasion of the states he leads, we get to see another imaginary conversation with himself as he muses about how easy he finds it to do whatever he wants… "I said, 'How long will it take me?' [to get approval to build his ballroom] “Sir, you can start tonight, you have no approvals.' I said, 'You gotta be kidding,'" Trump said. "They said, 'Sir, this is the White House, you're the President of the United States, you can do anything you want.'" So which is it? Is he the ultimate power and decision maker who can tear things up or make things better as he wishes? Or is he going to have the other conversation we hear all too often where he professes ignorance of people, places, and things whenever it looks like he might actually have to take responsibility for decisions and orders he has made? If the SNAP program shuts down, we will have the most mass hunger suffering we’ve had in America since the Great Depression. He can fix this one particular issue. He chooses not to. So once again, we don’t listen to what you say. We watch what you do.