As you may have read, tomorrow SNAP benefits, better known as food stamps, will not go out to a little over 40 million Americans. There are as best we can tell, 342,688,984 people in the United States. In the last fiscal year (2024) there were 41.7 million people on food stamps. About 12.3% of the United States receives food stamps. About 10% of food stamps recipients are disabled people. 39% are children. 20% of senior citizens. Only a little over 30% are adults who are not seniors and not disabled, or between 12 and 13 million people. About 83% of them have an income, and are just still poor. There are maybe 2-3 million people on food stamps who are able bodied and not working, by my math. All of this is one google search away. You can ask AI too.

If you listen to conservative leaders though, they are alarmed at how many people are receiving benefits. Most Congressional Districts have over 100k people receiving benefits within them. The majority are children, the elderly, the disabled, and the working poor. As of tomorrow, none of them will receive their benefits. The message from Washington is clear- go to hell. We know that people in failing life situations cost society more, be it in welfare programs, prison costs, health care costs, and other programs designed to prevent catastrophic outcomes. What happens when you starve the people hanging on by a thread? Well, you’re in luck, we’re about to find out.

I would much prefer universal basic income to traditional welfare, if there was a fully ironed out plan to do so, but there’s not. These people are going to start dying and doing other bad things without this money. Congressman Mackenzie, Senator McCormick, and Senator Fetterman are prolonging the government shutdown by insisting on taking health care from millions of Americans. President Trump is making the shutdown worse by refusing to use funds available to him to fund this program. Real people are suffering as a result.