The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
It’s un-American to hurt the hungry and sick. That’s what Trump and the GOP-led Congress are doing. Conservatives control the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court. As a former GOP representative and friend said in 2016: Republicans are in charge and can’t blame the Democrats anymore. Still true. Long before the shutdown the White House and most congressional Republicans made it crystal clear that they don’t care about the hungry or sick. A sharp departure from American history since FDR’s New Deal (1930s).
Let’s start with hunger. Trump’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) months ago cut over $1.5 billion that was intended to buy food from U.S. farmers, including in Wisconsin, for schools and food banks. Trump also dissolved the Agency for International Development, resulting in U.S. farmers losing a $2.2 billion market to reduce world hunger. Moreover, the White House wants to eliminate the bipartisan Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Programs that also address world hunger and support U.S. farmers.
And, Trump’s on and off trade wars have reduced agricultural exports and brought U.S. farmers to their knees. A temporary truce with China doesn’t solve farmers’ economic problems. Worse, while U.S. farmers lost the Chinese soybean market to Argentina, Trump bailed out Argentina with $20 billion. Adding insult to injury the White House also wants to import beef from Argentina. Wisconsin GOP Representative Derrick Van Orden makes meaningless noises, but refuses to hold Trump or U.S.-based monopoly food processors (responsible for high beef prices) accountable.
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In September, the USDA ended its annual report tracking U.S. hunger, obscuring the consequences of growing hunger. However, the White House suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits will sharply increase hunger in America. SNAP puts food on the table for 42 million, including 700,000 Wisconsinites. Women, children, the elderly and disabled, including many veterans, will go hungry. Moreover U.S. farmers lose another market. Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin said SNAP has a “contingency fund” to continue paying SNAP benefits, despite the shutdown. Baldwin decried “Trump playing political games.”
Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul and 22 other attorneys general, plus 3 governors, including Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers, sued to restore the SNAP funding. Two federal judges agreed and said the suspension was unlawful. Will Trump obey the courts? SNAP funding has never previously been suspended, not even during the first Trump shutdown in 2018-2019! Two of the leading advocates of ending U.S. and world hunger, Senators George McGovern (D-SD) and Bob Dole (R-KS) would have been disgusted by Trump’s action. Unlike Trump they knew that feeding the hungry is the highest priority of a decent society.
Finally, millions of Americans, including tens of thousands of Wisconsinites, now know their out-of-pocket premiums for Affordable Care Act private health insurance increased by over 175 percent. Why? Because Trump and the GOP-led Congress will not negotiate to extend expiring ACA tax credits. Enough! Listen to Baldwin. Stop the cruelty, extend the ACA tax credits and end the shutdown.
Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
