Harger: When Congress plays politics with SNAP, the American public pays the price

Have we really come to this? We’re continuing a government shutdown, and we’re cutting poor families off SNAP food benefits?

These aren’t abstract policy points. They’re groceries for real families.

Democrats control enough Senate seats to block any funding bill, and they’re using that power. They want healthcare subsidies extended for 24 million people. That’s important, absolutely. But while they hold firm on principle, refrigerators are starting to run empty. Not only for those who use SNAP, but also for all families not receiving a paycheck during the shutdown.

It looks like these families who use SNAP will get half the normal amount at some point this month, despite the president’s bluster yesterday that they would be completely cut.

It feels like hunger is being used as a weapon by Republicans and Democrats.

I’m seeing a lot of pushback about SNAP online. People are saying the program is rife with fraud, so let recipients deal with the consequences. You’ve seen these posts. That mom looks overweight and could use a fast. That family bought junk food. Them? They’re probably selling benefits for cash.

My personal experience with food snaps

I need to share something personal with you. When I was a kid, there was a time when we used food stamps. I have eaten government cheese. I know exactly what it tastes like, how it somehow made grilled cheese sandwiches both better and worse. Back then, it was a five-pound brick of generic American cheese.

At least for me, the shame was suffocating. Other kids knew. They knew about the food stamps, the free lunch program. Kids notice everything. They know who pays full price for lunch. They know who the lunch lady marks the different colored tickets for.

You might as well have worn a sign. And kids, being kids, made sure you knew they knew. Not always cruel, but always aware. Always watching. Always marking you as different.

That experience shaped so many things about my adult life. I’ve always worked full-time, and for years kept multiple part-time jobs too. Not because I’m particularly virtuous, but because poverty scars you. You promise yourself: never again. Never that checkout line shame. Never that cheese.

Now we’re doing this to a whole new generation. These kids are political footballs, tossed back and forth while adults play games with their groceries. And no, suddenly cutting their food won’t magically create self-sufficient adults. It’ll just create more scarred kids who grow up promising themselves “never again.”

Yes, I knew families who gamed the system. Traded benefits for cash, bought things they shouldn’t. The program isn’t perfect. But I also knew families who genuinely needed help. Single moms working two jobs. Disabled veterans. Seniors choosing between medication and meals. For them, food stamps, or SNAP as it is now called, was the difference between eating and not eating.

If we want to reform SNAP, let’s have that conversation. Hold hearings. Study the data. Vote on changes. But using hunger as a negotiating tactic crosses a line.

When judges issue orders to feed hungry families and presidents say “maybe not,” when senators of the other party block everything and let the government shut down and let employees go without pay to make a point, we’ve lost something fundamental about who we are as America.

Day 36 of this shutdown. Members of Congress are still getting paid. Their refrigerators are full. The president hasn’t missed a meal. But somewhere today, a kid is learning what poverty tastes like. They’re making promises to themselves about their future.

We can do better than this. We have to.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

Follow @https://twitter.com/kirocharlie