Rev. John Udo-Okon
NATIONAL- Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Congressional Democrats for voting against a stopgap spending bill that that would have kept the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from ending this Saturday, Nov. 1. Johnson stated, “You’re talking about tens of millions of Americans at risk of going hungry — if Senate Democrats continue this.”
Nearly 42 million people, over 12% of Americans, use SNAP benefits to supplement food purchases for over 22 million households living on less than $2313 per month. Per the USDA, in 2023, 38.8% were children under age 17 and 19.5% were adults age 60 and older. Over half of the recipients are not able to work to pay for food.
What Johnson isn’t saying is this; the Republican reconciliation bill would make the largest cuts in history to both SNAP and Federal Healthcare programs over the next decade. It cuts SNAP by $186 Billion and makes $1 trillion in cuts to federal healthcare. $793 billion are cuts to Medicaid and $268 billion would be carved off from the tax credits for users of the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the cuts will increase the number of uninsured by almost 11 million.
In 2024 there were 24 million Millionaire households in the US, compared to 25.3 million uninsured. If the Democrats sign off on the Republican bill, 4.7 million people will lose their healthcare. Those healthcare cuts will fund the $80,000 in tax cuts for millionaires written into the same bill. For every millionaire’s tax cut, four working people lose their healthcare. The healthcare cuts alone would fund the tax cuts for millionaires.
Johnson depends on public outcry for current assistance to force the Democrats to sign for cuts to SNAP and Healthcare. Republicans are wagering on political pressure for a quick fix to lock in a 10-year plan that still puts millions at risk of going hungry AND cuts their healthcare. Johnson stated, “On Saturday, this gets very real,” referring to millions of Americans facing a food crisis as food assistance is abruptly stopped due to the shutdown.
The working class is already saddled with, on average, $1000 dollars of medical debt per person. By threatening their basic needs, the increased stress results in demoralization, a state of disheartened exhaustion associated with existential distress. Withholding access to food and medicine causes a cascade of dysfunction. As dependences mount, the working class succumbs to individuation and dependency. Powerlessness pacifies the sick, starving masses over the coming decade, no matter which party they happen to vote for.