'Do we eat or pay rent?' SNAP recipients growing more desperate as GOP 'uses food as leverage'

With the partial shutdown of the United States' federal government dragging on after almost a month, GOP and Democratic lawmakers continue to fight over the specifics of a spending plan. And many Democrats are saying that if the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and subsidies for the Obamacare exchanges are not adequately funded, millions of Americans stand to lose access to food and/or health care.

During a Thursday morning, October 30 segment on CNN, host Kate Bolduan showed interview with SNAP recipients who emphasized how reliant they are on the program.

"Federal food benefits known as SNAP, the government's largest anti-hunger program, will begin to run out of funding as soon as Saturday, (November 1)," Bolduan explained. "And here's what is at stake for so many families in their own words."

Bolduan showed a clip of SNAP recipient Elizabeth Orrbell telling CNN, "I will not be getting those SNAP benefits come the 1st of November. So, I came and checked in to see if it was my time to shop for groceries."

SNAP recipient Donovan Mikesell told CNN, "I'm very concerned. I don't know what I'm going to do. I know you can go to food pantries and stuff, but it's going to be so out of control. I mean, you might be standing there five, six hours to get any food."

Another SNAP recipient, Richard Davis, told CNN, "It would be a matter of: Do we eat, or do we pay rent.? And right now, the way things are going, it looks like: you know what? Let's just pay rent."

Bolduan brought on GOP Sen. Mark Alford of Missouri, who serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Alford blamed Democrats for the shutdown, pointing the finger at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and claiming that "this is all on Chuck Schumer's head." But Bolduan pushed back, pointing out that Schumer wants to see SNAP adequately funded and noting Democrats' concerns that the Trump administration is "using food as leverage."