The GOP's risky scheme could backfire this time

“Thousands could lose SNAP food benefits.”

That story ran last Sunday in the New Haven Register. The headline actually reflects an undercount. “Several hundred thousand people in [Connecticut], including some in every single town and city, could go without food assistance they rely on to survive,” wrote Alex Putterman.

About 10 percent of Nutmeggers, or more than 360,000 in a state of 3.6 million residents, are expected to lose their food stamps, as the shutdown of the federal government goes into its second month.

Why is this happening?

Because Donald Trump is holding hungry people as ransom in order to force the Democrats in the Senate to accept a Republican funding bill.

Speaker Mike Johnson keeps saying there’s no legal mechanism for accessing food-stamp money. Therefore, he says, the only way to release it is for the Democrats to vote to reopen the government.

That’s a lie. Last month, the USDA released a contingency plan in case of a shutdown, according to Roll Call. In a memo, the agency said:

“Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown. These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”

Put simply, the president is impounding money already set aside by the Congress to fund the SNAP program. Put more simply, he’s stealing it.

The state of Massachusetts is being surprisingly blunt. “President Trump is currently choosing to not issue November SNAP benefits that help you and your family put food on the table,” its health agency said.

That’s in stark contrast to the reasons cited by the regime.

The USDA’s website said the Senate Democrats have voted against funding the food-stamp program, because they “continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures.”

That’s not what the agency said last month.

Johnson seems to think hostage-taking is just the kind of leverage his party needs to force the Democrats into complying with the regime.

“Things are getting real,” he told his conference Tuesday. “Pressure mounts on the Democrats,” he said, if House Republicans stay unified. With 42 million Americans on food stamps, “the pain register is about to hit level 10,” he said, adding that “we deeply regret it on our side.”

It’s a helluva thing to suggest, as Johnson did, that he has no regrets about starving people as long as it’s the right people being starved.

Aside from that, however, is Johnson’s misplaced confidence.

Democrats at the state level are acting to protect constituents from Trump’s extortion. According to NBC News, they are moving to secure tens of millions in emergency funding. (Moreover, 25 Democratic AGs are suing the Department of Agriculture.) Here in Connecticut, Governor Ned Lamont is setting aside $3 million as a partial stop-gap.

Connecticut’s Republicans are in line. They are not taking the risk of explaining themselves to hungry voters. The most vocal critic of Lamont suggested that neither he nor his caucus would be party to the fact that “people are being leveraged now and people are being hurt.”

“I stand in support of the governor’s first initiative,” House Republican leader Vincent Candelora told the Courant. “It’s not a substitution for SNAP. Our caucus is certainly willing to work with this administration to figure out a way to get more funds into these programs.”

In other words, don’t look at me.

It appears that Mike Johnson is using the old playbook. His party hurts people in the belief that the Democrats will save them in their quest for independent voters and GOP voters disaffected by Donald Trump.

But the gambit could backfire this time.

First, because the Democrats are not making the shutdown only about a normal policy disagreement. They are also making it about the crimes committed against the people by the president. Holding hungry people hostage only magnifies the allegations against him. As I said, the Republicans are used to burning supporters as leverage. They are not used to the Democrats standing by and letting them get burned.

The second reason Johnson’s gambit could backfire is because the cost of living is already unsustainable. It is becoming more so, as a consequence of the president’s tariffs and their inflationary effects.

Indeed, inflation was the deciding factor for millions of Americans in the last election. It was the only reason they voted for Trump. They didn’t care about his crimes. They cared only about rising costs.

But with a criminal president literally stealing the lunch money of 42 million Americans, forget about the price of eggs. There’s no eggs at all.

And finally, it could backfire by eating into the invisible profits associated with being a Trump supporter. I don’t mean real profits. I mean fake ones – the “wages” that come from believing that he’s going to stop “undeserving” people from “unfairly” competing with you.

WEB Dubois called this “the psychological wages of whiteness.” By voting for Trump, lots of Americans, and not just white ones, thought they were giving themselves a pay raise of some nebulous sort. But the longer this shutdown goes on, and the hungrier these people get as a result, the more that phony pay raise will feel like a very real pay cut.

Mike Johnson says that the pressure is building on the Democrats, but Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Forever Trumper, are trying to tell him that they fear what will happen when constituents open their mail to find out their health insurance premium has tripled, go to the pharmacy to find out they no longer qualify for Medicaid, or go to the grocery store to find out there’s no more SNAP money left.

They won’t blame Trump, but someone’s gotta pay.

Given the Democrats don’t control the Congress, guess who?