Around 42 million Americans — including roughly 16 million children, 8 million
seniors, and hundreds of thousands of veterans — are in imminent danger of going
hungry.

Why?

* Donald Trump and congressional Republicans engineered a government shutdown —
now the longest in our nation’s history — so they could make Americans pay
even more for healthcare.

* But with the federal government shut down, the critical Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — which many refer to as “food stamps” —
is also out of money.

* Years ago, Congress established a reserve fund specifically to keep SNAP
going during emergencies — even manufactured emergencies that result when one
political party throws a temper tantrum and shuts down the entire federal
government.

* Two different federal judges have ruled that the administration must follow
the law and use the reserve fund to keep SNAP going.

* But the regime is fighting those rulings — literally going to court and
arguing that it has some “right” not to feed people. The cruelty on display
here is beyond appalling.

* We’re talking about roughly one out of every eight people in this country —
the richest country the world has ever seen — at serious risk of going
hungry. If we made just slightly different choices as a society, nobody would
be hungry, and the greediest among us could still have far more than their fair share. But here we are.

* All the Trump administration has to do to help millions of Americans avoid
going hungry is follow the law. Instead — in a truly unhinged case of adding
insult to injury — the regime is willing to let people starve while it holds
the government hostage trying to jam through a budget that would deny people
healthcare.

This is what the Trump regime is telling the American people: If you don’t let
us jack up the cost of healthcare, we’re going to let millions of you go hungry.

Tell Donald Trump: [[link removed]]

You are legally required to use available funds to keep the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program going during the government shutdown. But this is
even more basic than that. Do you really want to be the president who lets
millions and millions of Americans go hungry when you have the power to help
them? All you have to do is tell your Justice Department to stop going to court
and arguing in favor of hunger in America.
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