Approximately 1 in 8 U.S. residents is on food stamps. So how do you think they’ll react when their EBT cards suddenly stop working? The government shutdown has already lasted 25 days, and there is no end in sight. The Democrats have absolutely no intention of giving President Trump what he wants, and President Trump has absolutely no intention of giving the Democrats what they want. We are potentially facing the most extended government shutdown in U.S. history, and the first day of next month is when things are going to get very real for tens of millions of Americans.
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture just announced that there will be no more funding for the food stamp program starting on November 1st.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Saturday posted a new message to its website blaming Democrats for the upcoming suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or food stamps, saying assistance will halt beginning Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.
“Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the unsigned message posted on the USDA’s official website reads.
“At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance,” the notice concludes.
This is really happening.
People who have relied on their EBT cards to buy groceries for years will have to find another way to feed themselves.
The CEO of Hunger Free America says that we are facing “the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression.”
Should funding run out at the end of the month, “we will have the greatest hunger catastrophe in America since the Great Depression, and I don’t say that as hyperbole”, said Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America.
Snap supports working families with low-paying jobs, low-income people aged 60 years and older and people with disabilities living on a fixed income, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
He isn’t exaggerating.
There will be millions upon millions of people who suddenly do not have enough food to eat.
And hunger tends to make people very angry.
By now, you have probably seen some of the “EBT meltdown” compilation videos that are all over YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.
Large numbers of people are threatening to go get their groceries like they normally do once food stamp benefits run out.
They plan to load up their carts and walk straight out the front door without paying.
And if someone tries to stop them, they are threatening to commit acts of violence.
Needless to say, it will not be a fun time to work at a grocery store.
If the government shutdown lasts long enough, it is probably inevitable that we will see entire stores get looted by large mobs of people.
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I don’t think that we will see that during the first couple of weeks in November, but if we get into the second half of the month and the government shutdown is still going on, people will be filled with rage.
This is what happens in a socialist system.
We now have a substantial portion of the population that expects the government to feed them, and if they do not get what they feel like they are entitled to they will just take it.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture does have a $6 billion “contingency fund”, but the agency is telling us that it will not use that fund to pay food stamp benefits next month.
The US Department of Agriculture says it will not tap into its $6 billion contingency fund to cover food stamp benefits next month if the shutdown continues, according to an agency memo obtained by CNN. That means that roughly 42 million Americans will not receive critical food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in November, unless the agency shifts its position.
However, when asked whether he would direct USDA to fund food stamps next month, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday, “Yeah, everybody is going to be in good shape, yep.” The president did not provide specific details.
Trump’s comments appear to conflict with the agency’s memo, which stated that “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.”
USDA officials have concluded they cannot use that fund because they believe federal law makes it illegal.
In a memo, first reported by Axios, the USDA said the reason is simple: The contingency fund was designed to respond to unforeseen events, like natural disasters, and the current shutdown doesn’t qualify because it was manufactured by Democrats. To spend the money on SNAP benefits during such an event, the USDA argues, would be illegal.
The Democrats are arguing otherwise.
They insist that it is legal to use that fund during this shutdown, and that is what they will tell all their constituents.
So that will make them even angrier.
The good news, if you want to call it that, is that some states, such as Virginia, will use their own funds to provide food stamp benefits next month.
Some states, like Virginia, have announced that they will tap state funds to cover the shortfall, at least temporarily. But USDA has stipulated that it won’t reimburse those costs, and many states simply lack the funds to make that investment on their own.
Most states do not have enough money to do this.
So this will add to the confusion.
Some people will be getting their food stamp benefits, and others will not.
For many of those who suddenly have their benefits cut off, life will get even harder than it is now.
One of those people is Shari Jablonowski. The 66-year-old widow, who lives outside Pittsburgh, is bracing to lose the $291 in food aid her disabled nephew gets each month. She raised her now-adult nephew and two nieces as her own, and even without this looming crisis, her budget is a tightrope.
“This month, I could not afford to pay … anything, gas or electric,” she says. Instead she paid her monthly car payment, since she needs to drive to doctors’ appointments, visit her mother, and one niece uses the car to get to work.
If her nephew’s food benefit disappears in November? “I am very concerned I will not have heat,” she says. It would also ruin Thanksgiving.
Let’s certainly hope that this crisis is resolved by Thanksgiving.
Because if it isn’t, things are going to get really, really crazy.
For now, many impoverished Americans are counting on their local food banks to help bridge the gap.
But as I have documented in previous articles, demand at U.S. food banks was already at a record high even before the government shutdown.
So there won’t be enough food for everyone.
And now, many federal workers who suddenly find themselves without paychecks are lining up for assistance.
Federal workers lined up around the corner outside of the Capital Area Food Bank in Southeast Washington, D.C., on Friday after missing their first full paycheck since the now 24-day government shutdown began.
The food bank, set up specifically for federal workers, provided boxed meals, household goods and personal hygiene items to over 250 federal employees on Friday, according to Wil Stroman, a local pastor who is helping organize a food bank for federal workers every Friday until the shutdown ends.
On top of everything else, if the government shutdown lasts long enough members of the U.S. military will start missing paychecks in the middle of next month.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that service members will miss paychecks by Nov. 15 if the government shutdown stretches on, despite the Trump administration’s previous assurances that members of the military will be paid amid the funding lapse.
“I think we’ll be able to pay them beginning in November, but by Nov. 15 our troops and service members who are willing to risk their lives aren’t going to be able to get paid,” Bessent said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
I wish this weren’t true, but our country simply cannot handle an extended government shutdown.
A month from now, we could literally see riots start to begin.
This is exactly the sort of thing that we have been anticipating, and it comes at a time when there have already been very large anti-ICE and anti-Trump protests all over the nation.
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In fact, the number of political protests during the first nine months of Trump’s second term was more than three times higher than the number of political protests during the first nine months of his first term.
The level of anger in this country is rapidly building up to a crescendo, and now 42 million Americans are about to have their EBT benefits shut off.
Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
