PRAGMATIC ISSUES

While the President rages about “revenge,” global power plays, and his imaginary Nobel Peace Prize, millions of Americans are about to go hungry.

In Colorado alone, more than 600,000 people will lose their SNAP benefits food stamps on November 1 if this shutdown drags on. Why? Because the same man who never misses a round of golf can’t be bothered to feed his own citizens and seeks to exact revenge on democratic run cities and states.

This isn’t a policy debate anymore.

It’s a moral failure.

The Hunger Games, Trump Edition

This shutdown isn’t an accident.

It’s not a “hiccup” in government.

It’s a weapon.

Manufactured and maintained by a president and his party who sees chaos as leverage and suffering as sport.

While Trump and his enablers in Congress posture about “fiscal discipline” and “deep state enemies,” families are rationing peanut butter sandwiches and praying the local food bank has enough to get them through the week.

SNAP, better known as food stamps, isn’t some luxury program. It keeps kids fed, keeps working parents from skipping meals, and keeps seniors from having to decide between insulin and dinner. Now, because Washington can’t pass a budget, those cards will stop reloading next month.

In one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, Congress is holding food hostage because compromise has become a four-letter word.

In Colorado alone, half the recipients are children. That’s not a statistic. That’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner for thousands of kids who did nothing wrong except be born into a system run by adults who refuse to share the sandbox.

Politicians puff their chests about “fiscal responsibility” while wasting taxpayer money not governing.

Here’s the kicker these are the same lawmakers who never miss a taxpayer-funded lunch at the Capitol dining hall. The same ones whose paychecks roll in whether the government works or not, the same ones who shove Christianity down everyone throats and the same who get on a high horse to preach that abortion is murder, whilst ignoring that starving children and families to death is also, murder.

How very Christian.

Meanwhile, local food banks in Denver and beyond are already overwhelmed and they’re bracing for a tidal wave when those November benefits don’t arrive. Imagine explaining to a mother with two jobs and a hungry toddler that her government is “still negotiating.”

A Government Shutdown, And the Damage Is Real

The phrase “government shutdown” sounds sterile, bureaucratic even but, it is not. It means grocery shelves going bare. It means families skipping meals to keep the lights on. It means teachers sending granola bars home with students because Washington can’t be bothered to feed its citizens.

We’ve reached a point where cruelty is policy, and apathy is bipartisan.

Trump has time for photo ops and global sabre-rattling  but not a word about his own people here who can’t afford milk.

He boasts about “peace deals” abroad while waging economic war on his own citizens. He calls himself a fighter for the working class, yet it’s the working poor who are bleeding out first while the rest start to bleed out slowly. He is for the upper class, not the middle and not the poor.

This shutdown wasn’t forced by Democrats. It wasn’t some bipartisan accident. It was engineered by the same MAGA hardliners who confuse cruelty for strength and loyalty for silence. They lit the match, and now they’re pretending the fire is someone else’s problem.

Enough Excuses

If politicians want to posture, fine. But not at the expense of hungry families.

This isn’t governing, it’s governing by tantrum.

And the President the self-proclaimed “deal-maker” is too obsessed with punishing opponents and polishing his international image to notice the human cost of his own arrogance.

If politicians want to play chicken with the federal budget, they can start by freezing their own salaries until they do their damn jobs.

Let’s call it what it is, a man-made famine of leadership.

Families can’t eat political theater. Children can’t live off talking points. Colorado and every other state teetering on the brink deserve a government that prioritizes feeding its people over feeding one man’s ego.

Trump wanted to “drain the swamp.” Instead, he drowned the pantry and with the swamp that he bought to the table.

Colorado, and every other state on the brink, deserves better than political theater while food runs out.

Because hunger doesn’t wait for a continuing resolution.