With SNAP (food stamps) and LIHEAP (home heating) benefits for low-income Vermonters set to be turned off in November if the federal government doesn’t reopen ASAP, state and local politicians are scrambling to find alternative solutions. So far, despite vague promises, they don’t have any. Nothing concrete and actionable, at any rate.
LIHEAP in Vermont is roughly a $20 million-per-winter program and needs $13 million at the outset of the heating season – that’s now – to deliver the first round of assistance. SNAP costs $12 million per month. So, if the state is going to backfill funding for these programs for just November, we’re looking at around $25 million. These are state tax dollars we really can’t afford and are not guaranteed to see reimbursed when, at some point, the government does reopen.
An article in Vermont Digger featured comments lamenting this situation by the Scott Administration, House Ways & Means Chair Emilie Kornheiser (D-Brattleboro), Senate Appropriations Chair Andrew Perchlik (D-Washington), House Human Services Chair Theresa Wood (D-Waterbury), and advocate for Hunger Free Vermont, and State Treasurer Mike Pieciak (D-VT). They are wringing their hands, oh what shall we do! But – inexplicably – none (and not just these) are doing the one sure-fire thing to end this mess and ensure Vermonters don’t wind up cold and hungry:
CALL ON SENATORS SANDERS AND WELCH TO QUIT PLAYING PARTISAN POLITICAL GAMES AND VOTE TO FUND THE $%&! GOVERNMENT!!!
Seriously, folks, grow a pair. Represent your constituents and call these clowns out. Tell them to stand up to leader Schumer (D-NY), set Washington and New York politics aside, and do the right thing for the Vermonters who elected them – and you. And I don’t want to hear from the people who have sued the Trump Administration a gazillion times over federal policy that it isn’t their place to interfere here. Baloney.
Since October 1, there have been twelve votes to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government. Republicans hold 53 seats, and Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them hold 47. It will take 60 votes to break the Schumer-led filibuster that’s causing the shutdown. While a couple of Democrats —Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Shaheen of New Hampshire —and Maine independent Angus King have voted with Republicans to reopen the government, Sanders and Welch have voted NO all 12 times.
They don’t care that Vermonters are suffering; in fact, that’s a feature of their plans, not a bug. Democrat Whip Katherine Clark is being accused of saying the quiet part out loud in an interview with this lovely quote: “Of course there will be families that are going to suffer… but it is one of the few leverage times we have.” In other words, this is a hostage situation, and Vermont’s most vulnerable citizens are the hostages. The more pain we’re in, the better.
Sanders himself echoed this callous sentiment on CNN, saying, “When you reopen the government and we lose our leverage….” Of course, he continues to get paid through the shutdown, so there’s no threat of his missing a meal, having to turn the heat down to 50 (if there’s any heat at all), or not being able to pay the mortgage on any of his three homes. This is just a game to him, and Vermonters are pawns. Who will stand up for us?
It’s not just LIHEAP and SNAP at risk. Sanders and Welch voted to block a separate defense bill, meaning our military is not being funded, and soldiers and sailors are not being paid. This puts our national security at risk. Air traffic controllers and TSA agents are not being paid, putting lives in the sky at risk. And for all their rhetoric about doing this for Obamacare subsidies, their votes to keep the government closed are blocking $50 billion for a rural healthcare initiative that Vermont’s rural hospitals desperately need.
So, Governor Scott, President Pro Tem Baruth, Speaker Krowinski, and the rest of Vermont’s state senators and representatives, how about instead of spending your time trying – and so far failing — to figure out how to wring another $25 million out of Vermont taxpayers so as to enable Washington disfunction, you get on the horn to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and publicly demand in no uncertain terms that they quit screwing around and vote to re-open our government.
And in the event our elected officials’ thumbs remain stuck somewhere other than the speed dial button on their phones, we citizens might be wise to make some phone calls ourselves. Bernie’s number is 800-339-9834, and Welch’s is 802-863-2525. Your local Representatives and Senators contact info can be found at: legislature.vermont.gov.
A waggish senior Democrat aide was quoted as saying the Democrats wouldn’t vote to reopen the government short of “planes falling out of the sky.” Nice. What about before some Vermonters freeze to death or go hungry? Huh, Bernie? Huh, Peter? Asking for some 60,000 friends.
