Democrats' shutdown is about to starve Americans (10-29-2025--Hour1)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to dpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. So what are we in now day four thousand and two of the shutdown? No, actually, I think we're in day twenty nine. And now it's getting serious. Now it's for real. Now the pressure is up to eleven out of ten. Just whatever analogy you want to use in there, just however hyperbolic or you know, catastrophizing you would like to make this, just go for it. That is the standard, apparently, So the big focus now in the media because that's what the Democrats would like us to focus on. And I'm not saying it's not worthy of focus. I'm just pointing out that Democrats want this argument now to shift from who's responsible for the shutout or shut down rather not the shutout. I guess there's a shutout on votes. They've held thirteen votes in the US Senate and virtually every Democrat except for two have voted to keep the shutdown going. So and I've gone over the details of why that is the case. This is, I mean, is it's a nakedly political move by Democrats. I have explained all of this over the last few weeks. And so now we are approaching the point where Democrats poll numbers are dropping. We covered that yesterday. The No Kings rally already occurred. So the fear that Chuck Schumer had about opening the government up and quote unquote caving to Republicans right before a whole bunch of leftist moonbats descended on the Capitol, you know, he avoided that. And so now you would think this would be an opportunity to actually move off of the position that Republicans need to expand Obamacare permanently in a way that Democrats refused to do for the last fifteen years when they had multiple opportunities to do so, but refused to do so, and then layered in more subsidies, and now want those temporary subsidies that they wrote. They wrote the bill for the temporary subsidies. They were the ones that passed it. They were the ones that did it, making the subsidies temporary, and now they want Republicans to make them permanent. These are the things that Democrats are tomaining Republicans do that Democrats refuse to do. That's why I say it's nakedly political. So now it's about to get serious because while you know, yes, military service members, we're going to miss a paycheck, I don't really think Democrats cared a lot about that. There was an anonymous donor, although I think people identified the guy. He stepped forward and cut a check for like one hundred and eighty million dollars or something to pay for one round of the payroll for the service members, which you know, the left will see that and say, oh, well, that's, you know, some evidence of corruption. He's trying to buy favors, because it just doesn't dawn on them that there are people that love the country and want to take care of the service members, and so they have the money to do it, and so they write the check to do it. But this is like a civic. Mindedness that Americans have had for our entire history. It's what alects us to Tokeville talked about people joining all these civic organizations and such. But now we're coming to a demographic, a constituency that is more closely centered around the Democrat Party's heart. I'm just kidding. They don't have a heart anyway. Republican Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri, he has a bill that would address the impending suspension of SNAP benefits SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program aka food stamps. Okay, that's what they were called when I was growing up. They've been called that forever. But then they were like, that's stigmatizing, which again, it's not the name that's stigmatizing. It's the condition, right, that's the It's like any other word that people use. And then all of a sudden it is like, oh, you can't use that word because it's stigmatizing. It's not the word, it's the condition, okay. And the condition gets stigmatized for some reason, and you know a lot of times it's for good reason. It's associated with you. Know, shame, debauchery, lackadaisicalness, lack a daisicality, whatever, Like there's usually some behavior that's attached to the to the term to the condition. So Josh Hawley has a bill, and this bill would fund just the snap. Okay. The US Department of Agriculture, administers the foodstamp program's benefits, has announced that due to the shutdown, quote, the well has run dry and there will be no benefits issued starting on November one. And by the way, the USDA has been has been saying this for the last month, almost right since the shutdown began. The USDA has been saying that the annual or the sorry, the monthly cost here, and it's like eight or nine billion dollars a month in food stamps. And they're like, we don't have money to cover this. And you know, we operate month to month on you know, money we borrow from China. I guess uh. So, look, we don't have the money for this. So if you guys are going to do with this for the long term, just be aware we're not going to be able to pay out the food stamps. So Hawley's bill, called the Keep Snap Funded Act, or the KSFA, or as I call it, the CASIFA, It would appropriate federal funds to the foodstamp program and would also provide retroactive. Benefits to those who have missed them. It currently has eleven sponsors, and it actually has a Democrat who has signed on in support, Peter Welch of Vermont. I have no idea if he's related to the Welsh food people, but or the Betting family. Either way, Peter Welch only Democrat to sign on. Once again, that makes this a bipartisan bill by the definitions that are applied. Whenever Democrats run a bill and they get a Republican on board, like Adam Kinsinger or Liz Cheney, they call that bipartisan. But when you get a bill that a Democrat signs on too, if you're a Republican, that doesn't count. Every prior attempt to fund the government on a piecemeal basis has failed. During this current government shutdown, there was a bill from Ron Johnson, the Senator from Wisconsin, to pay federal employees that got rejected by Democrats. There was a bill to fund the Department of War to pay the troops that got blocked by Democrats. Ted Cruz had a bill to pay air traffic controllers that got blocked by Democrats. Are you sensing a pattern here? It's almost as if there is one voting block of people in the Senate that do not want the government to reopen. So these aren't I mentioned this the other day. These rifle shot bills is what they call them. So these are like individual pew pew pew. You know, it's like. Individual like little mini budgets if you will, in order to get critical spending approved. And these have been attempts to put Democrats on the spot and pressure them to create momentum for funding the government. Okay, Senator John Haven from North Dakota, he said, we got to fund all these things, but we're trying to get the ball rolling. So that's why you see some of these rifle shot ideas. But there is a concern that if Democrats take the opportunity to fund specific areas of government, it could remove pressure points for them to facilitate a full reopening. So this is the game that is being played that if you do these rifle shot bills and you fund these critical things, then Democrats may never reopen the government, to which I say, please do not throw me in that brier patch. You know, stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past, while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety seven and Minhill, North Carolina. It was the first company to provide this valuable service, converting images, photos and videos into high quality produced slide shows, videos and albums. The trusted, talented and dedicated team at Creative Video will go over all of the details with you to create a perfect project. Satisfaction guaranteed. Drop them off in person or mail them. They'll be ready in a week or two. Memorial videos for your loved ones, videos for rehearsal, dinners, weddings, graduations, Christmas, family vacations, birthdays, or just your family stories, all told through images. That's what your photos and videos are. They are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you, and they will tell others to come who you are. Visit creative video dot com. All right, So that, by the way, I was reading that piece from George Caldwell at the Daily Signal Daily Signal dot com. Here's Politico. Senate Democrats are now preparing to introduce their own bill to keep food aid benefits flowing for millions of Americans during the government shutdown ahead of a November one funding cliff. The legislation is not the same, this will surprise you, not the same as the bill that was put forth by Josh Hawley, a Republican, which would just fund SNAP and payback states that had fronted money and stuff, so you know, past benefits or whatever. So that's Hawley's bill, and it is what they're calling, you know, a rifle shot bill. So it's just this one element of. The much larger federal budget that's included in the continuing resolution. The legislation from the Democrat side is introduced by Ben Ray. Lu Jan lu John Lujhon. There's a little thing over the a. There's like a little accent Lujon, I think. So he's a Democrat from New Mexico, and he could draw Democratic support away from Hawley's bill, which almost makes it seem like that's the point. Hawley's bill pushes. USDA and the Treasury Department to fully fund the November benefits under the SNAP benefit program, and Lujon's bill, on the other hand, would require the administration to fund both SNAP as well as another aid program that serves low income women and children. I will come back to that part later. It would also require that states be reimbursed for funding benefits during the shutdown. Okay, so very similar to Hawley's bill, except adding in this other component of the Low Income Women and Children program. Agriculture Secretary see here's the rub okay. Agriculture Secretary brook Rollins said that it would cost the Department nine point two billion dollars to fund November's SNAP benefits along with administrative costs and nutrition block grants for US territories. That's the monthly cost okay, nine point two and she emphasized that USDA does not have those dollars on hand. Democratic officials from twenty five states and the District of Columbia have now challenged the administration's decision a decision not to tap emergency funds, and they have made this challenge in court and signing on to the court case is our very own baby, JESUS Attorney General Jeff Jackson. You are about to see a lot of headlines about something and it's going to affect millions of people. I feel like he should be doing a meditation app, you know. I think he's really missing his calling. He could do a meditation app maybe do a little side hustle with ASMR stuff online. Look, I'm trying to be helpful. There you go. The Attorney General for North Carolina and we, along with all fifty states, just got a letter from the Department of Agriculture. This is the department that runs the SNOW program, which is our country's big food assistance program, and they are essentially shutting it down next week. The letter tells us not to provide food assistance to anyone starting November first. That's sixteen million kids, one in four in our country, six hundred thousand just in North Carolina. Children make up almost half the entire SNAP program. The average benefit is about one hundred and eighty dollars a month, and the department says it is stopping all payments because of the government shutdown and a lack of funds. But the truth is they have the money. They have a six billion dollar emergency fund that Congress gave them for exactly the situation. Okay, they have an emergency fund. Well, wait a minute, why won't they use that. Jeff Jackson aka Baby Jesus, by the way, that's the term that is fellow Democrats in the North Carolina Legislature gave him, not me. So if he's saying then that the money is there, and Congress specifically allocated this emergency funding for this very situation, why wouldn't the USDA tap that fund? Hm? Hm oh, I know, because Orange man bad, Orange Hitler, fascism, star of the babies. Right, something like that? Is that just immediately jumping to the motivation that is derived out of evil? Is that? Or is it possible just spitball in here? Is it possible that maybe Jeff Jackson might not be telling us the whole story? Is that possible? Is it possible that Jeff Jackson might be behaving in a bit of a partisan way along with the twenty four whatever other Democrat attorneys general that are suing in order to support Chuck Schumer's shut down, which, again keep in mind, Chuck schumer shutdown is because he's terrified of the leftist base, as are a lot of Democrats overthrowing him and putting in Alexandria A. Cazo Cortez in the primary election in New York State in this run for US Senate, Schumer wants to run for reelection. He's like seven hundred years old. And so here comes you know, AOC very popular among the leftists, and they are going to call the tune in the Democrat primary. And Schumer is very worried about that. And by the way, I have evidence of this. I'm going to play you an audio clip. You will hear it. I am not making this up. So and by the way, this is being widely reported up in Washington, d C. As well. So is it possible Jeff Jackson might not be telling us the whole truth that the six billion dollars emergency fund could be tapped? Well, first off, what did I just give you in the in that figure from the USDA, it's nine billion. That's the cost is nine point two billion dollars for the month of November to have, you know, to pay everything out the emergency fund is six billion. Okay, So first off, you're like thirty three percent short of what you're going to need. Also, by the way, I would point out that his the average is one hundred eighty eight dollars. Now he doesn't say the average benefit is one hundred eighty eight dollars, Like is that per person in a household? So if you have six people in a household, you're getting like twelve hundred dollars is that or is it just one eighty eight per household, because that doesn't seem right at all. Right, of course it's per person and that's the average. So some people get less, some people get way more. So again it's this, you know, massaging of the information in order to spin a narrative that Democrats want people to believe in order to apply pressure to Republicans to make them agree to do something that Democrats themselves refused to do for a decade and a half. They refuse to do it. They had the trifecta, they had a Democrat president, Senate, House control. They never made the Obamacare subsidies permanent. They never did that. But now they want Republicans to do it, and they're holding everybody else hostage. Oh. Also, they don't want the Big Beautiful Bill provisions to remain. That's what the cr includes. They're still fighting the Big Beautiful Bill and they want Republicans to go back on their signature legislation. That's not going to happen. Okay. So that's the thing in a negotiation. You have to understand what is possible that is not possible. What is possible is passing the continuing resolution. The problem is Democrats' incentives are not aligned with doing so, which is why they are not doing so. It's very simple. There's another thing that Jeff Jackson said, though, that I'm going to come back to, and that is can they actually use the emergency fund for this situation. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina. Just a quick drive up the mountain and Cabins of Ashville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big old reunion. Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breath taking fourteen thousand acres of the Pisga National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 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Bernie Sanders says, you reopen the government and we lose our leverage. Chuck Schuma, every day gets us, every day gets better for us, That's what he said. Reuben Diego said, then I just go back and shut it down again. Chris Coon said, frankly, this is our only moment of leverage, and although a very unpleasant tool to. Use, we're totally going to use it. Congresswoman Catherine Clark said. There will be families that are going to suffer, but it is one of the few leverage times we have. And I played that sound bite last week, and in fact, we have yet another SoundBite. This one is from Shelley white House. Why are working families the lever the Democrats need to get Obamacare fixed? You get the Republicans to fix Obamacare? Why is that the place you guys got have to go that far? It's the only lever we have, and frankly, it wouldn't be a lever at all if Republicans were being reasonable and doing exactly what they should be doing for the sake of their own constituents, so many of whom depend on the affordable care headas. Okay, so there it is. He's going to hold the food stamp hostage until Republicans agreed to expand Obamacare and its subsidies, which is what Republicans have opposed since Democrats in a party line vote, rammed it down the throats of the American people a decade ago. Republicans have been against Obamacare from the very beginning. They have never voted for it. They've never voted for the subsidies, the expansions, all of that stuff. They've opposed, even Democrats, even some Democrats when it was originally passed. I went over all of this last week. Even some Democrats opposed it, that they had to get bribed with exemptions in Obamacare in order to vote for it. Even Democrats refuse to do what Democrats are demanding Republicans do right now. They are trying to extract some win, some victory, and they're demanding Republicans cave on it, and they are willing to make people suffer in order to get that. Oh and by the way, all of this is based on an assumption that Obamacare isn't the colossal failure that it has been. Remember it was supposed to bend the cost curve. Remember that lie if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. Another lie actually voted or rated the lie of the Year by that right wing rag the Washington Post and it's PolitiFact bs meter. So let's go. I mentioned the cost. The cost of the snap is over nine billion dollars. There is this emergency fund. Okay, the US Department of Agriculture. This is from a week ago, almost well five days ago. The USDA says it will not tap into its contingency fund to cover food stamp benefits next month if the shutdown continues. Okay, They sent out a memo and they said that the can contingency fund is only six billion dollars and the cost for the food stamps for November is over nine billion, so they are short. Okay. Now you can say, well, every little bit matters, so you should just deplete, just drain the entire contingency fund, which, by the way, that is very on brand for Democrats. You'll recall our Governor Roy Cooper, who now wants to be in charge of the federal spending and make these decisions at a federal level. He was of the opinion that we should drain the rainy day fund. Right. He wanted to keep depleting the rainy day fund in order to pay for teacher pay raises and then not have any money in reserve for emergencies, which is on brand for him because he really doesn't pay any attention to any emergencies, at least when it comes to the weather and actual rainy days. Anyway, So that means that roughly forty two million Americans are not going to receive food stamp assistance through SNAP. Okay, here's what the memo says. Quote SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for but are insufficient to cover benefits. The contingency fund is not available to support fiscal year twenty twenty six regular benefits because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists. Does that make sense? The key here is the regular benefits. This is the wording that is used. And so they're saying these contingency funds are there to supplement regular monthly benefits, not to supplant. You cannot use the emergency funds to pay out the regular monthly benefits because the appropriation does that. Now you guys are not appropriating. That doesn't make it. That doesn't change the definition of when you can use the contingency funds. Also, states will not be reimbursed if they use their own funds to pay for benefits according to this memo. Right. So, again, this is why Josh Hawley and Lujon Senator Lujhon from Louisiana wherever he's from. That's why they are including that provision in both of their rifle shot bills. Now, as you might imagine, leftists disagree with this. The Lefty Center on Budget and Policy priorities. The president there, Sharon Parrot, her name is Parrot anyway, she says Secretary Rollins's claim is unequivocally false. In fact, the administration is legally required to use contingency reserves billions of dollars that Congress provided for use when snap funding is inadequate, that remain available during the shutdown. Okay, so I guess we're going to litigate this. Fine. You guys have differences of opinion about what the law says. Take it to the courts. Have the courts interpret what the law says what you can and cannot do. But even even if Democrats win, even if Jeff Jackson aka Baby Jesus and all of the Democrat attorney generals win, even or attorneys general even if they win in court, First off, when does that happen? Is it after November one? Number two? Let's say you get a rush on the court case and you get a rush decision and you force the USDA to raid the contingency fund. You still haven't paid out the full benefits because there's not enough money in the contingency fund. Number two and number three. Now there's no more money in the contingency fund. And if Democrats refuse to budge, we're in the same position, in fact worse now because there's no contingency fund. See, Democrats are not giving themselves any off ramp here. All right, If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do, and you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. 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Okay, this is from Dana, who is antagonistic sometimes with a picture a screenshot of I guess a Facebook meme so you know it's true. Just a reminder that forty eight percent of Snap recipients work full time, thirty nine percent of Snap recipients are kids, twenty percent of Snap recipients are seniors. If you think it's funny that people will go hungry, you are a terrible I'm assuming it's person that got cut off there on the image there, you are a terrible person, I'm assuming which I assume Dana was saying that I was saying that it's funny that people are getting cut off. I do not think it's funny. It is the libertarian prophecy, though, When you make people dependent on government, they are the ones that actually get hurt the most because they then become dependent. That dependency eventually gets shattered when they least expect it, like the beginning of November, three weeks before Thanksgiving. See. That's see. Government makes all these promises to you, and people then buy into the promises because they want stuff. They it's easy, Oh good, let's let me have this free program, let me have this benefit, let me have this service. And then you keep voting for people that you know, keep promising you more and more and more, and the whole time you are becoming more and more dependent on the government. And then one day something like this happens, and now you are collateral damage. They do not care. Here's another example. This is. Let's see here Josh Harder I think is his name. Yes, he's a California Democrat, and he has asked about, look, why don't you guys just pass the the CR, the Continuing resolution passed the clean CR, and then try to get these other things pasted. Why not take that route? I think the idea that you would give up all of your leverage and then hopefully get some sort of great deal coming down the pike is just a fool's Errand. There you go. It's about leverage. They're trying to get something. They want something extra, and they are will And by the way, this is not a new tactic, right. This is what Roy Cooper did to teachers in North Carolina multiple times. Multiple times he held teacher pay raises hostage in order to get Medicaid expansion. He put a higher premium on Medicaid expansion than the teachers pay raises. He did it multiple times in the budget fights with the Republican legislature. And you can say that that's okay, because Medicaid expansion is worth it, whatever, whatever, but it doesn't negate the very fact that he used residents of North Carolina, his constituents. He used them as leverage. He used them as pawns in order to get something that would benefit him personally. And you could say it would benefit all of the people that could get on Medicaid, although I would submit that that's actually not for their benefit, because people actually have worse outcomes on Medicaid than without even having any insurance. But all that aside, he derived political benefit. And there isn't any reason why you would do such a thing unless there was something politically advantageous, which, by the way, is what he is using to sell himself for the US Senate race. Look at me. I voted to expand medicaid. I got medicaid expansion done, which of course he did not. It was the Republican legislature over objections from people like me. But they did it anyway. And they crafted this formula based on other states where they did like this increased tax on the hospitals and then did a pass through and whatever, so like that's how they quote paid for it. Well, that's what's happening now. It's the same thing. You are expendable. And I'm not laughing at the people who are now dependent on government. It's sad to me. It is absolutely sad to me, because that's the real scandal here. The number of Americans that are on the SNAP program. That's the scandal. Why is one out of eight Americans on food stamps? The corporations Elon Musk, orange Man Hitler, like, it's all their fault, everybody's on the food stamps? Or is this sort of the natural tendency of all governments it is. I would say that that is the case. Governments have a natural inclination, as all organizations do, to expand. As George Washington said, it is a useful servant, but a fearful master. Like fire, and like fire, it will consume everything if not kept in check. And that's what government is doing. The natural tendency is for it to grow to, you know, offer security and exchange for liberty and the nash the natural tendency of citizens is to sacrifice liberty for that security. And then of course you find out you don't have either, you don't have the food security because your needs are now at the whim of politicians making political judgments about leverage. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.