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LOADINGERROR LOADING WASHINGTON ― Democrats have succeeded in elevating health care as the defining issue of the government shutdown, putting Republicans on defense over their demands to prevent insurance premiums from skyrocketing for more than 20 million Americans next year. As the shutdown enters its second month, however, Democratic lawmakers are grappling with a more immediate problem: Federal food assistance for more than 40 million Americans will not be distributed beginning Nov. 1 due to a lack of funding. Advertisement The lapse of food benefits seems to be prompting soul-searching within the Senate Democratic caucus, most of which has refused to fund the government without an extension of subsidies for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act. Democratic senators are essentially juggling the needs of two key constituencies ― people who need help affording health insurance and people who need help affording food. “How am I supposed to choose between those two constituencies?” asked Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) in an interview with HuffPost. “I care about all those people.” The shutdown’s impacts are mounting, with the Federal Aviation Administration potentially halting more flights due to staffing shortages, as federal workers go unpaid, and food bank directors prepare for a surge of demand in the coming weeks. States issue Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits on debit cards near the beginning of the month for most participants. Advertisement So far, Democrats are not faltering in their health care demands. Instead, they’re blaming the Trump administration for saying it won’t distribute SNAP benefits when there’s several billion dollars sitting in a contingency fund for exactly that purpose, and when President Donald Trump’s first administration took similar steps to protect SNAP during the 2019 government shutdown. “We’re saying the Republicans can fund it now, and they’re using these people as hostages, plan and simple,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Wednesday when asked if Democrats bore some blame for the fact that SNAP benefits aren’t being funded. “We don’t want to pit health care and food. They do. We think you can have both,” he added. There is a clear irony in the GOP using SNAP as leverage and bemoaning the plight of Americans relying on a program they spent all year describing as overly generous to unemployed single adults who play video games all day. Advertisement “The Democrats are coming near now to a cliff that they will not be able to turn back from,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday. “You’ve got families and children that rely upon SNAP benefits that are going to go hungry here at the end of the week.” But it’s clear that pressure is growing on Democrats and that the shutdown stalemate has entered a new phase, with increased murmurs of bipartisan discussions among senators and Trump set to return to the United States from Asia. Trump has been disengaged from the shutdown negotiations, and Johnson has kept the House out of session and refused to negotiate with Democrats. Democrats tried to turn the tables on Republicans on Wednesday by introducing a bill to fund SNAP benefits only. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) sought to quickly pass it in the Senate by “unanimous consent,” meaning without a vote. But Republicans blocked it, refusing to give Democrats an out. They maintained that Democrats ought to support funding for everyone, including federal workers and military troops, and not just SNAP beneficiaries. Advertisement “The senator from New Mexico is absolutely right: SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said, raising his voice uncharacteristically on the Senate floor. “People should be getting paid in this country, and we’ve tried to do that 13 times – and you voted no 13 times!” For the first time in history, SNAP funding will lapse this weekend absent action from the Trump administration. Open enrollment for Obamacare health insurance exchanges also begins on Saturday. The chances of a deal coming together before then is slim to none since the Senate is expected to leave town on Thursday and return next week. But some senators are optimistic that could change next week when the pain of the shutdown becomes more acute. The Nov. 4 statewide elections in Virginia and New Jersey ― where Democrats are expected to do well ― could also scramble politics on Capitol Hill. Most Democrats insisted they were not prioritizing health care over nutrition as the shutdown drags on. Advertisement “They are not mutually exclusive. We are fighting for working families across our country,” Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) told reporters on Wednesday. “It is a conscious, deliberate choice that the administration is making to not release the funds that have been appropriated for that purpose.” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), one of only a few Democrats who has crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans on reopening the government without an extension of ACA subsidies, criticized members of his party who are “just worried about being perceived as caving” on the shutdown. 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Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. We hope you will join us once again. Support HuffPost Already a member? Log in to hide these messages. “I’m not going to risk having this kind of mass food insecurity for 42 million Americans,” he told HuffPost. Advertisement Other Democrats said the consequences of not funding one program over another are weighing on them as they continue to demand that Trump and congressional Republicans come to the table and negotiate an end to the shutdown. “What are the short-term goals versus long-term goals?” said Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.). “SNAP touches many, many more people. Not all of them are dire situations, but a lot are. So that pushes you into a position of priorities. It doesn’t mean I feel any less about health care, right?”
