A hunger for leadership, compassion as SNAP snaps shut

By Patricia Lopez / Bloomberg Opinion

The nation’s poor are hurtling toward a deadline they can do little about.

By Sunday, 42 million Americans could lose critical food benefits; because Republicans refuse to tap a contingency fund that would continue funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the government shutdown. And Democrats, so far, refuse to capitulate on their core demand: the extension of health care subsidies that expire at year’s end.

But although congressional dysfunction caused this shutdown, there’s no doubt who stoked that congressional dysfunction: President Donald Trump. He is on his third government shutdown in five years of governing, a dismal record that speaks to his refusal to recognize working with the opposition party as a legitimate part of the political process.

This time around, Trump has decided there will be no negotiations, only the endless theater of Senate Republicans voting — 13 times and counting — for a continuing resolution that would fund the government for a few more weeks. Even if it eventually succeeds, it only will kick the can just a little further down the road.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-a-hunger-for-leadership-compassion-as-snap-snaps-shut/