SNAP Recipients Crushed by Democrats Caving on Shutdown: “They Just Wasted It All”

Sarah a -year-old single mother in Maryland was down to the last on her EBT card as of Monday wondering how she would feed herself and her two preteen boys as the leadership shutdown dragged on She d been out of work since May after the Trump administration made sweeping cuts to federal contracts and eliminated her job in residents physical condition She had been rationing her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Undertaking or SNAP benefits for over a month unsure of when if ever the deposit would hit her account again It s been awful revealed Sarah who requested to be identified by her first name only because she fears speaking out could hurt her job search But the Maryland mom revealed she was willing to sacrifice if it meant millions of Americans could afford their healthcare insurance The pitch they made it made sense Sarah advised The Intercept Everyone knew it was going to be painful but it was vital and they just wasted it all On Sunday a group of eight Democratic senators including Minority Whip Dick Durbin D-Ill cut a deal with Republican leadership to end the leadership shutdown They did it without forcing Republicans to agree to any of the major concessions Democrats declared they were fighting to secure which included a reversal of Medicaid cuts and an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies The deal is slated for a vote in the House on Wednesday evening and it looks likely to pass Related Key Senate Dem Says Party Caved on Shutdown to Make a Symbolic Point About the GOP While Senate Republican leadership agreed to hold a vote on the subsidies the decree is more than likely dead in the water especially since Democrats forfeited their main piece of leverage As a end tens of millions of Americans are projected to see their premiums skyrocket and an estimated million low-income Americans will outright lose their insurance through Medicaid The Intercept spoke with four SNAP recipients who explained they re furious that Democrats squandered the sacrifice they made for the last month to ensure access to wellness care for millions of Americans just as voters rewarded the party for absolutely fighting back against Republicans with major electoral victories last week We sacrificed and we would continue to sacrifice because we understood what the stakes were People s healthcare care was at stake revealed Delight Worthyn a SNAP recipient with lupus living in New Haven Connecticut And that they would cave for nothing after we have all gone through I only feel betrayed Though the Supreme Court has paused a federal judge s order that the Trump administration pay full SNAP benefits for the month of November specific recipients have started receiving full or partial benefits The SNAP funding available varies by state Don t talk about me and my food insecurity to justify kicking people like me off of my vitality care Sasha Slansky a full-time master s aspirant at Queens College at the City University of New York who works a series of odd jobs to pay her bills commented it s insulting for Democrats to use SNAP recipients as a justification for caving to Republicans and President Donald Trump In his floor speech Durbin invoked SNAP recipients as one of the reasons he was agreeing to Republicans shutdown deal Don t talk about me and my food insecurity to justify kicking people like me off of my medical care mentioned Slansky noting that Democrats seem not to have taken into account the overlap between SNAP recipients and people who receive Medicaid and their insurance through the Affordable Care Act It s insane and it s insulting and it s also just so wildly out of touch Nearly million of the million people who received SNAP in were enrolled in Medicaid The number of SNAP recipients has since risen to million people as of this year I m also on Medicaid Slansky mentioned And as Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani and a great number of multiple Democrats have made clear this has the prospective to kick millions of Americans off of Medicaid which likely includes me Natalie a delivery driver living in Lynnwood Washington reported she managed to spend only half of her SNAP benefits for the month stretching meals that would normally last her two days to three or four She received her benefits for the first time since October on Tuesday but she revealed it doesn t erase the hardship of the last month Though the Supreme Court has paused a federal judge s order that the Trump administration pay full SNAP benefits for the month of November several recipients have started receiving full or partial benefits The SNAP funding available varies by state It felt like we were making a small sacrifice skipping meals because we felt like we were doing something to help save people and that we were doing something good for the country and to have our only leverage just handed over reported Natalie who inquired to be identified by her first name because she s transgender and wished to avoid transphobic harassment It feels like it wasn t for anything Related The President Is Perfectly Fine If You Starve Natalie commented she wishes that Democrats had built off of their electoral victories in New York Virginia New Jersey and California earlier this month to pressure Republicans instead of without delay disarming when they had the upper hand The MAGA Republicans were on the ropes They were getting the blame Why didn t they keep using that and pushing the narrative the truth on social media and traditional news that Republicans are doing this to people declared Natalie That was a really strong message and it was one that people were willing to sacrifice for The post SNAP Recipients Crushed by Democrats Caving on Shutdown They Just Wasted It All appeared first on The Intercept