As NOTUS reported, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had a plan to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) running during a government shutdown by using contingency funds. But that disappeared from their website. Still, MAGA Mike Johnson joined Dana Bash on CNN and lied about that.
"Can I just ask you, because you mentioned it, that you all have found ways to pay members of the military, which people understand, and WIC, which people also understand," Bash said. "But why are you drawing the line now on 40 million Americans who literally will not be able to eat without government assistance?"
"Why not help them in the short term?" she continued.
"Wait a minute," Johnson interrupted. "Wait. I reject the premise of the question. I'm not drawing the line."
"The Democrats are drawing the line," he continued. "If we had a contingency fund that we could use, that would be done."
"The White House has demonstrated over and over, the executive branch, all the cabinet secretaries are doing everything they can to mitigate and reduce the pain, but that ability is not available for SNAP because the contingency fund had to be prior authorized by Congress," he said.
"Well, they say that that's not what the law shows," Bash said.
"Well, that's ridiculous," Trump's little Johnson insisted.
"Certainly, the administration has shown that they are very happy to move money around without Congress saying yes," Bash shot back.
"No, Dana, it's just simply not true," Johnson said.
This is what was removed from the agency's website:
“Congressional intent is evident that SNAP’s operations should continue since the program has been provided with multi-year contingency funds that can be used for State Administrative Expenses to ensure that the State can also continue operations during a Federal Government shutdown. These multi-year contingency funds are also available to fund participant benefits in the event that a lapse occurs in the middle of the fiscal year.”
Approximately 42 million Americans are expected to lose their SNAP benefits in just a few days due to the government shutdown, including seniors, children, and the disabled. The government shut down, then the president was MIA— he left the country to discuss trade negotiations over tariffs, which is another thing crippling our economy.
