Hello, and welcome to another Campfire edition of the Civic Flame. For those you just joining us, campfire editions are when we take a quick look at some pressing legal and political issue thatÕs outside the official bounds of our Constitutional and civic education podcast The Civic Flame. And Boy do I wish politics would calm down enough that I didnÕt need to send you out these bonus episodes, but today, thereÕs something massive coming up and I wanted to talk about it and help you with some talking points in case you find yourself in discussions on this. This week, weÕre going to talk about SNAP the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or food stamps. (music) As you may have heard, with the Congressional shutdown still going on, one of the big issues is funding. To understand more about CongressÕ money powers, check out our episode from earlier on the week on Article 1, sections 7 and 8. For now, letÕs get into SNAP. For those of you who donÕt know, SNAP is commonly known as food stamps. Approximately 1 in every 8 Americans use some form of SNAP benefits to cover the groceries. A majority of SNAP users are children, the elderly, and the disabled. And a lot of SNAP users have jobs. Actually, the biggest beneficiaries for SNAP are companies like Amazon, Wal Mart, and the United States military who underpay their employees so much that a lot of the use SNAP and other public health resources to make ends meet. You can check out the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (cbpp.org) a non-partisan research and policy institute for more on this. I recommend them because while I was looking it up on government websites the message I got was: Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, this government website will not be updated during the funding lapse. Hopefully by the end of this episode, youÕll know why and HOW to tell that this is fundamentally untrue (and as I said in another episode, likely a violation of the Hatch Act which forbids politicking by federal agencies in this mannerÉ. though there appear to be no consequences for this Administration or its associates.) For the record, the hatch act Òthe Hatch Act of 1939, An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law that prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice president, from engaging in some forms of political activity.Ó So not only is blaming democrats untrue but the manner in which it is being done might be illegal. The shutdown happens when Congress cannot agree on a funding package. Remember that each bill must pass both houses of congress identically before it is passed. Then it goes to the president for a signature. Well, the Senate has a Republican majority (53-47), and the House has a Republican majority (220-213). For the few days I was on TikTok I got trolls coming and telling me the republicans didnÕt control all three branches of government, which to me showed that these were bots that were deliberately targeting any posts on republican responsibility because I had 7 followers and thereÕs no way the algorithm jut randomly sent me to these people. For more on that see our previous 3-prt series on cyber security and how 40-60% of the people you talk to on the internet might be fake. Anyway, republicans control both house of congress, the presidency, and the supreme court. So, this oneÕs on them. And the process means that until they agree, the government will remain shut down and Congress will continue to get paid (the Senate is, at least still working) ItÕs less clear what the House is doing, if anything. Since they canÕt agree in particular Senate democrats wonÕt agree to cut Medicare and Medicaid any more, the government remains in a stalemate. So far the longest government shutdown was during the first Trump administration in 2018-2019 and lasted 35 days. Today is day 30 of the current shutdown. If I seem a little more steamed about this than usual, itÕs because to me SNAP benefits are deeply personal issue. Growing up I was a welfare kid, and there were times when the food stamps ran out that I was so hungry I couldnÕt read. The words on the page were too fuzzy for me to see. So, as a former kid who went hungry not too much gets me as upset as kids going hungry, and especially kids going hungry because wealthy elites are using them as political pawns. My heart and prayers go out to everyone dealing with this and IÕll be working with organizations locally to get food to those who need it. But here are some things IÕm worried about on a bigger level. This is happening during the Thanksgiving month. This means that lot of poor kids are going to be shamed at an extra level as schools around the country celebrate Thanksgiving and kids go home to not enough food on the table. Further, thereÕs the issue of economics. Spending between Thanksgiving and Christmas is how a lot of businesses offset any losses from the other three quarters of the year. If people canÕt buy food or are spending the Christmas budget on dinner, then we have an economic issue. If those companies feel like they canÕt keep up, people are going to lose their jobs. And then letÕs go to a bigger level. Medicine. If people donÕt have food stamps, even more of them than already do are going to have to chose between food and medicine. We know that people will die because of this. ThatÕs not an exaggeration. Go to the podcast Behind the Bastards and check out the episode on Diabetes and Insulin. ThatÕs fun. (outro) This campfire edition of the Civic Flame was brought to you by Dr Fun Sponge media in partnership with writer and creator Amber Vayo and Sound producer Matthew Munyon. As always, thanks for listening.