The Ruin of the State

 It is morally abhorrent that Trump has been going out of his way to deny food stamps benefits to hungry families throughout this federal shutdown. I know this intellectually. But—for whatever perverse reason—it was only an Associated Press story that ran over the weekend—about the impact of this policy on people's pets, specifically—that really brought home its human impact to me. 

Trump's decision to fight a district court judge's order—mandating the disbursement of SNAP payments to the states—and to threaten various penalties against states if they proceeded with paying out full food stamps benefits anyway—has meant that many impoverished families faced food insecurity this week. And, as a consequence—the AP points out—this often means hunger for their animals as well. 

And no, this is not because people are spending EBT benefits on food for their pets. Hold your fire, Fox News headline-writers. People on food stamps are not actually allowed to purchase non-human food with them. But some of them of course do have pets, and—money being fungible as it is—if people have less money to spend on themselves, it also diminishes the supply of funds left over to feed their animals. 

This means that, the more humans go hungry as a foreseeable result of Trump's policies—the more animals will as well; even as many poor families are so devoted to their pets that they would gladly feed them first. 

A line of Blake's comes to mind: "A dog starved at his master's gate / Predicts the ruin of the state." 

And indeed, Trump's actions during the shutdown have had a distinctly end-of-days/Masque of the Red Death/après-moi le deluge sort of quality to them—hosting costumed balls while Americans go hungry on his orders. "Lisbon is in ruins, while in Paris they dance!" to quote Voltaire. "The state" (per Blake) does indeed seem to be tottering on its last legs, in times like these. 

Of course, Trump defends his decision to withhold SNAP benefits on the grounds of necessity. He tries to shift the blame onto Democrats, saying: they caused the shutdown! Congress has not appropriated any more money for the program! I had no choice but to cut off benefits! 

But—as the federal judge in Rhode Island pointed out—pockets of money are actually available. And Trump has had no trouble moving funds around to pay for other initiatives that are more dear to his heart—such as building himself a new ballroom at the White House. 

42 million Americans—and their pets—risk going hungry on his orders. While Trump dances at Great Gatsby–themed Halloween parties and builds himself a new ballroom. 

And while—as William Hazlitt once archly put it—"We have not a word to say against all this [...] as an artful distribution of light and shade in the social picture"—nonetheless—"if any one insists at the same time that [...] not a mouthful of food is left by the grinding law of necessity for the poor, we beg leave to deny both fact and inference[.]"