One has to wonder if government will ever function correctly again. People who rely on SNAP benefits have been on a roller coaster ride the past week and taxpayers are footing the bill for yet more court cases, both filed by their states and Donald Trump.
Last week two judges said the benefits needed to be paid, but that wasn’t enough for the president, who has a somewhat callous disregard for the law. He appealed, but that wasn’t moving fast enough, so he went around the appeals court to the Supreme Court, which issued a stay while the appeal was in process. The appeals court reached their decision and said benefits needed to be paid. Now Trump is back to the Supreme Court because he didn’t like what the appeals court said.
Kudos to our governor, Tony Evers, for saying he had Wisconsin pay out SNAP benefits based on a judge’s order and what the USDA said they were going to do initially. He said he isn’t taking away any of those benefits regardless of what the Trump administration wants. One might wonder how you take away what people might already have spent.
When did it become necessary to adjudicate everything before government could function? Why is our president so keen on depriving children of food? He doesn’t have a problem with giving money to dictators. He doesn’t have a problem with building a huge, unnecessary ballroom. He doesn’t have a problem issuing pardons for his friends. The only thing he seems to have a problem with is taking care of the average citizen of the United States.
At the same time because of the government shutdown, air traffic is a mess on the eve of holiday travel for Thanksgiving. I admit it. I would never get on an airplane, but for those who do, they shouldn’t be stranded somewhere because their flight got cancelled. Air traffic controllers are calling in sick or leaving their jobs rather than work without pay. Where else but in America would anyone be expected to do their job and not get paid for it?
All of this while Congress has been AWOL for weeks. They were still getting paid even though they weren’t doing their job. It seems there might be hope on the horizon, and that is a big might. The Senate seems to have come to an agreement to get something done. It still needs to go to the House. Both need to pass a continuing resolution. Then they have to convince the president to sign it, even if it contains things he doesn’t like. But they are only talking about funding most of the government through January which means we could be doing all of this again right after the first of the year.
Wisconsin is expected to pass a balanced budget by a certain date. If it isn’t done, they continue to function under the prior budget. Maybe the federal government needs to look at something similar. Obviously, with the huge deficit we have, a balanced budget is probably out of the question. But if Congress isn’t willing to get the job done and pass a budget, the country should continue to function on the last budget passed. It might be difficult to determine what that budget included. The last time Congress passed a full budget on time was in 1997, over 25 years ago. Many people in this country get paid based on job performance. Maybe Congress should also look at that and their pay gets docked for every day they don’t get anything done.