While many were out celebrating Halloween, the close of October also heralded a halt in SNAP benefits for numerous Americans due to the government shutdown.
In a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver criticized Donald Trump for pinning the shutdown on the Democrats while attending a Great Gatsby-inspired Halloween bash at Mar-a-Lago, just before his administration paused the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on November 1st.
“It’s frankly quite offensive,” Oliver remarked. “And I bet it’s equally aggravating to any tired high school freshman who just crafted a 4,000-word essay on The Great Gatsby as a bleak reflection on the crumbling of the American Dream, only to have CNN basically reduce it to ‘a narrative about wealthy folks partying.’”
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Oliver added, “And to put it bluntly, the actual motto of the event was ‘A Little Party Never Killed Nobody.’ Sure, that might be true. Yet, we’re now seeing that a ‘grand old party’ can indeed be deadly for many, and sadly, they appear utterly indifferent to that reality.”
The Trump administration’s decision to suspend SNAP benefits for over 42 million Americans on November 1st has generated significant controversy during this relatively subdued shutdown. Notably, the Department of Agriculture determined in October that it could not utilize billions in reserve funds for SNAP due to legal restrictions.
This action has prompted numerous legal challenges from states, cities, and other entities, anticipating a spike in demand at food banks.
This week, two federal judges decreed that the administration must access the $6 billion in funds. Although Trump declared late Friday that it would be his “honor to provide the funding, just as I did for military and law enforcement salaries,” his administration has requested court guidance on the disbursement process — a procedure that will still postpone the distribution of SNAP benefits to recipients for weeks, even under the best circumstances.
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