Everyone agrees that we want our locally elected public officials to solve problems, not breed new ones. So why did this local newspaper have a column last week from our local representative blaming the Democrats for a national problem? It doesn’t help solve any problems. And it does not add any information about local issues or responses – which is what this newspaper is all about.
Of course, the problem is the government shutdown. Both parties blame the other – nothing new there. The shutdown is occurring because of disagreement on the budget. But we are not seeing much in the news about why the budget appropriation is handled as a crisis when there was plenty of time to pass the appropriate bills. Congress is supposed to start working on the budget following the first Monday in February, and pass the needed appropriations bills by June 15. So why did the House wait until the last minute to start work – and then just ask for an extension? Why is the House not providing time for thoughtful negotiation and input from the citizens? Congress (particularly the House) is not doing its job – with its members currently not even working while continuing to get paid!
Our local politician – perhaps as an election maneuver – simply blames the Democrats. How silly to blame the opposition party – the one without power! Among other things, he pins responsibility on the Democrats for shutting down SNAP (what used to be called food stamps) funding, which would result in needy people going hungry. Yet, there is a federal contingency fund of almost $6 billion potentially available to continue SNAP (at least for a while) during the shutdown. The Republican led government would not allow its use during the shutdown, while instead providing a new $20 billion aid package to Argentina. This shows the worst of politics – having people go hungry to point a finger at the other side while using available funds to help political friends in another country. Just this past Friday, two judges disallowed this approach and told the federal government that it was required to use its contingency fund to continue SNAP. The administration is now challenging this court order, so unclear still is if and when food support money will be available to the poor. Fortunately, in Virginia a state contingency fund is being made available to help those people who depend on SNAP. Keep in mind that these funds are available because the economy in Virginia was unexpectedly strong in 2024 – a local economic situation quite different than now (as I’ve written about in past columns.)
The big issues currently separating the two parties are skyrocketing health care costs and limiting enrolment in Medicaid and SNAP. Many of us have personal beliefs that include healing the sick and feeding the poor– is the delegate somehow rejecting that these should not be among our shared values? Instead, as our delegate seems to suggest, should we simply let people lose the ability to see a doctor, lose the ability to feed their families, and believe it is okay because we can claim it is the other party’s fault? We are all Americans – let’s work together rather than blaming one another.
