Walt Rubel Commentary: Leaders are exploiting the politics of hunger

Poor kids don’t get candy.

That’s pretty much the gist of Republican arguments defending the loss of food assistance payments.

“I believe that SNAP benefits should be available for the scope of necessary commodities like ground beef or chicken rather than soft drinks and candy,” state Sen. Bill Sharer said in a recent opinion piece.

If Sharer wants to have a serious discussion about improving the diet of all Americans, count men in. But that’s not what this is about, as the rest of his column makes clear. He describes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as a temporary means to allow people to “get back on their feet in order to eventually provide for their families.”

There are more than 42 million people in the United States receiving food assistance. More than 60 percent of them are children or seniors. The notion that all of them are going through a momentary rough patch and things will turn around any day now is wishful thinking to the point of absurdity.

The Trump administration has used the ongoing government shutdown as an excuse to end funding for food assistance. Last week the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a District Court order that would have required full funding for SNAP.

In making their case for an emergency order to end food assistance to the poor and hungry, lawyers for the administration argued that, “the District Court’s order (requiring SNAP payments) threatens significant and irreparable harm to the government which outweighs any claimed injury to plaintiffs.”

A government that is $33.3 trillion in debt, and just passed a so-called Big Beautiful Bill that is expected to add another $4 trillion, is arguing that if it is forced to spend money to feed poor people it will suffer damage that is greater than if the poor people were made to go hungry. Even by lawyers’ standards, that’s a bit much. 

But, it is in line with arguments made by the president himself, who claimed that funding SNAP payments would endanger our nation’s “liquidity.” Now, can I show you photos of the golden toilet I have planned for the palatial ballroom?

Fortunately, New Mexico has enough money in reserve funds that our state will be able to help people receive food assistance even if the federal government shirks its responsibility. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has called for a special session to free up those funds.

For reasons that I truly do not understand, the fact that we are able to feed our poor and hungry at a time when other states can’t, seems to bother Sen. Sharer and other Republicans.

Along with arguing that assistance should be limited to beef, chicken and other foods of his choosing, Sharer claims without evidence that it is “no secret” the SNAP program is filled with cheaters.

Maybe so. But I’m less concerned with poor people stealing a sandwich than I am defense contractors padding their expenses on a multi-billion dollar project  that is two years overdue.

Sharer is still living in a world where jobs are plentiful for anyone willing to do the work. AI is changing all of that, and it’s only going to get worse in the coming years. 

Jobs are going away. People still need to eat. 


Walter Rubel can be reached at [email protected]

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