By Andy Brack
Republicans in Washington – members of Congress in particular – should be ashamed of themselves for using the federal government shutdown to score political points.
They are weaponizing hunger to avoid dealing with a coming health care crisis of their own making.
Republicans are also weaponizing the livelihood of more than 2 million civilian federal workers by not paying them during the shutdown. It’s still unclear if more than 1 million active-duty military personnel will be paid in the coming days. Again, it’s all because members of Congress aren’t doing their jobs. President Trump isn’t helping with his lack of leadership, petulance, recalcitrance and what some would call just plain meanness.
Furthermore, it’s perfectly clear why the U.S. House has been out of session for the last five weeks – to allow House Speaker Mike Johnson to keep from swearing in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who was elected Sept. 23. She would tip the balance on a vote to release the Epstein files – exactly what Trump and Johnson don’t want to do because it likely would be really bad for the president.
Bottom line: What’s happening in Washington is wrong. People are being hurt and democracy is sputtering.
Across the country, people are getting hot under the collar.
In South Carolina, S.C. Rep. J.A. Moore, D-North Charleston, is upset: “While our families here in the Lowcountry are wondering how they’re going to eat this weekend, Congress refuses to do their damn job. This is a choice. Republicans have decided that millions of Americans going hungry is worth it while funding bills of dollars for war overseas. They don’t care about us and they’ve failed us over and over again.
“These people in Washington D.C., have left us behind. I, for one, am tired of waiting on them to change. We must demand more.”
Even conservative U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is imploring his colleagues to break the stalemate to keep open the federal nutrition assistance program that feeds 42 million Americans who earn $42,000 a year or less for a family of four at a total cost that is one-10th of the federal military budget.
“America is a great and wealthy nation, and our most important wealth is our generosity of spirit,” Hawley wrote in a recent piece in The New York Times. “We help those in need. We provide for the widow and the orphan.
“Love of neighbor is part of who we are. The Scripture’s injunction to ‘remember the poor’ is a principle Americans have lived by. It’s time Congress does the same.”
Republican farmers in the nation’s breadbasket are tiring of the Washington nonsense. The final straw, according to Politico, came after Trump mused Oct. 19 about importing more beef from Argentina as American cattlemen are struggling.
So this week, 14 key GOP representatives came out of their shells to write this to the administration: “We believe strongly that the path to lower prices and stronger competition lies in continued investment at home … rather than policies that advantage foreign competitors.”
Also, a handful of GOP senators joined Democrats this week to send clear but symbolic messages to Trump about tariffs that are hurting American farmers and businesses. They voted to reverse 50% tariffs on Brazil and to cancel tariffs on Canada. The problem: the House isn’t in session.
America’s burning while Trump and the GOP Congress are fiddling. We can’t survive three more years of this maelstrom.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of the Charleston City Paper and Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send it to feedback@statehousereport.com.
