[Salon] The folly of Washington’s hunger games

The nation is truly falling back this weekend — not just clockwise — as the federal government prepares to deny food assistance to the needy.

More than four weeks into the government shutdown and the scheduled end of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on Saturday showed that nothing is beneath us. Not since the Great Depression, when government-funded food assistance started, have elected leaders turned their backs on the poor, elderly and disabled in this way. Two federal judges on Friday threw the plan in doubt, ordering the funding to continue, but it wouldn’t begin immediately, and the administration could appeal. About 42 million Americans risk losing their food support. That’s about 1 in 8 residents, with an average monthly benefit of $332 per household.

A nutrition program aimed at helping low-income pregnant women, new mothers and their young children could also run out of money. Administered by the Agriculture Department, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides milk, eggs and other basics, as well as breastfeeding support and nutrition education.

We’re accustomed to Republicans playing the “welfare queen” card in dollar debates, but this time Senate Democrats are getting some blame for blocking legislation to fund the government and, thus, food to the needy. But Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer is determined to hold his ground unless Republicans agree to extend Obamacare insurance subsidies, which expire at year’s end. Nov. 1 is also when open enrollment begins for Obamacare health plans. Without a deal to extend subsidies, enrollees stand to see a spike in premiums.Follow

With higher health care costs combined with likely food scarcity, at least we can find consolation in the 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom where the well-fed can dine and dance to their cold hearts’ content. States, meanwhile, are scrambling to fill gaps for people in need, either creating programs or digging into cash reserves, but most measures will be short-lived.

It probably won’t be long before some of MAGA’s own feel the limits of their president’s largesse. Of course, one should never wish suffering for others, regardless of political affiliation, religious belief, country of origin, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or what have you. We leave these and other prejudices in the capable hands of our elected officials, whose majority views reflect the governing sense of tribal warlords.

Speaking of President Donald Trump. The would-be king is still aglow following South Korea’s gift of a giant crown that looks like it was fished from a Gashapon vending machine. A big one. Such elegant mockery has to be admired. Royally flushed, Trump immediately turned his attention to our nuclear arsenal, ordering the Pentagon to immediately begin testing to keep up with China and Russia. The U.S. had ended nuclear testing in 1992.

The White House hasn’t clarified whether Trump intends to test nuclear explosions or merely delivery systems, as other nations routinely do. But someone should mention to the president that we no longer have to set off nukes to find out if they work. Fred Kaplan, who wrote a book titled “The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War,” recently explained in Slate that lab-testing components of nuclear warheads is sufficient to gauge their efficacy.

What, you might ask, do nukes have to do with food stamps? So much. The common threads are insanity and incompetence. It’s insane to cut off funding for food aid in the world’s richest nation. It’s insane to rattle world leaders with threats of nuclear testing. Russia has already said it will respond in kind to U.S. tests.

Finally, incompetence can be defined as leaders who can’t keep the government running.

When real people worry about feeding their children, when soldiers don’t know if they will get paid, when desperate people inevitably start stealing food from store shelves, we may have to figure out what the hell is going on. I never underestimate Trump’s talents in certain areas — the release of hostages from Gaza, for example. He also secured a $350 billion investment in the U.S. from South Korea in exchange for a 10 percent tariff reduction.

Still, when America is no longer respected by other nations, when our allies are made into enemies, when our fellow citizens become casualties of reckless policy, and when food scarcity is weaponized for political advantage, we are courting chaos. Which means Trump must be in his happy place. In a spooky parallel, one can’t help noting that North Korea, the only nation to test nuclear explosives in the 21st century, prioritizes spending for missile testing over food production, resulting at times in mass starvation. But then, North Korea is run by a dictator.