Empty Plates, Full Shutdown: How Congress Is Choosing Politics Over Feeding America - A Moral Outrage

While government paralysis wastes billions, millions of Americans go hungry. What justice allows leaders to play political games while children and seniors are left with nothing on their plates

This cycle is out of control. With every shutdown, politicians use the government as a bargaining chip, forcing ordinary Americans to pay the price of lost income, missed services, business disruptions, and overall instability. Working families, veterans, seniors, and children bear the brunt of this gridlock, while elected leaders point fingers and posture for partisan gain. The American people should not be held hostage or made to suffer for Congress’s political gamesmanship; the need for honest budget negotiations and respect for essential services must come before party power plays. It’s time to end this reckless pattern and restore government accountability. Enough is enough.

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Legally, the government shutdown does not reduce President Trump’s executive power or direct control over the federal government. In fact, the shutdown can be leveraged to consolidate or expand presidential authority over federal agencies and spending. The shutdown limits government operations due to funding lapses under the Antideficiency Act. Still, through the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the President retains significant discretion to determine which services and employees are considered “essential” and which programs are suspended or permanently downsized.

President Trump: “A lot of good can come from shutdowns.”

What changes during the shutdown is the array of operational tools at the President’s disposal:

• Trump’s OMB can direct agencies to furlough non-essential staff, halt whole programs, or even initiate “reduction in force” mass layoffs in divisions that do not align with White House priorities.

• He can freeze or redirect funding, delay payments, and suspend infrastructure or aid targeted at rival states or political opponents (as seen in the cutoff of New York City infrastructure funds during the present shutdown).

• The administration publicly claims shutdowns help identify “non-essential” government work, which it can then seek to eliminate permanently, pushing a partisan agenda under the guise of fiscal necessity.

However, these expanded interventions do not grant new constitutional powers; presidential authority remains limited by statutory law, congressional appropriations, and judicial oversight. Large-scale permanent layoffs or agency abolitions must typically follow established procedures, and efforts to punish political opponents via operational control may attract legal challenges.

DNC Chair Ken Martin: “The shutdown amounted to the clearest sign yet that Republicans are inept, incompetent, and lack any respect for the American people.”

The last government shutdown cost U.S. taxpayers billions:

The 2018–2019 Shutdown was the longest in U.S. history (34 days). It cost the economy at least $11 billion—$3 billion in lost economic activity, which never recovered, with around 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay.

These billions are wasted on government shutdowns, costs created by political brinkmanship. The American people should not be forced to suffer and pay the price of Washington’s power plays. Enough resources exist to eliminate hunger and transform millions of lives. Yet, those in power choose crisis over compassion, leaving working families, children, and the elderly to bear the brunt of irresponsibility. This reckless cycle must end.$11 billion could revolutionize food security in America:

• At Feeding America’s efficiency rate ($1 = 10 meals), $11 billion could provide 110 billion meals—enough to provide three daily meals for nearly 100 million people for a full year.

• The average cost per meal ($3.59–$3.99) means $11 billion could buy more than 2.75 billion healthy, nourishing meals.

• Feeding America reports the full hunger gap in America was $33.1 billion last year; $11 billion would close a third of that gap.

• For school, summer, and food bank programs, just $1 million can support 10 million breakfasts—$11 billion could fund 10 billion school meals and leave no child hungry.

Instead, this money is lost in political power games that shut down the government and do nothing for those in real need. The suffering imposed on Americans by manufactured gridlock is unjustifiable; it’s a preventable scandal that our resources go to waste and hardship, when they could create hope and health. It must stop; America’s taxpayers and vulnerable communities deserve better.

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