I am writing this post in response to a young lady that ran up to me in the lobby of the public library screaming, “Their cutting off our SNAP benefits!” Then she looked directly at me and said, “Why are they doing it, please tell me!” It was obvious that she was frantic about her situation due to the removal of her SNAP/EBT benefits. I was surprised that she singled me out of all the people in the library to express her desperation, because I don’t remember ever meeting her. As I watched her frantically struggling to understand why this was happening to her, I felt that one of her basic human rights was being violated. That is the right to understand why things are being done to you especially when those things are harming you. Therefore, I felt that this young woman, along with everyone else effected by this situation, had a right to understand why their food benefits were being taken away from them. I also realized that since this is the holiday season, this is the worst time for this to be happening to people. The following is my best attempt to make this confusing, manipulative, situation dumped on us by our government more understandable.
First for those of you who may not be aware, SNAP is the name (acronym) given to the government food benefits program, formally known as “Food Stamps”. Now after wondering for years what SNAP actually stands for, I now know that it stands for the SNAP benefit amount potentially being “SNAPPED” in half or being “SNAPPED” off completely if the government shuts down. The SNAP benefit cards are also known as “EBT” or Electronic Benefits Transfer cards, because recipients use these cards to debit money out of government accounts to buy food or withdraw cash. I will admit that I have had to use SNAP/EBT to make food purchases even though I have disability benefits, and work part time. The expensive cost of food has made it a necessity since I make it a goal to buy the highest quality, most nutritious food for my health. So, because of my experience with this program, I understand and have empathy for the young lady I met in the library.
Now to understand why SNAP benefits are being cut off so suddenly to recipients all over the country who so desperately need them which includes disabled, elderly, homeless and those with dependent children, you have to look behind the scenes. Since the mainstream media is not here to inform, but to entertain, you must not focus on their titillating and tabloid accounts of infighting between political parties. For instance, how one party is “racist” and hates the other party because they “love immigrants.” You also cannot rely on the shallow analysis of mainstream political commentators because they will leave out key details to preserve the currently acceptable political narrative. They will never direct your attention to the history that got us in this mess with the government shut down and stopping of SNAP benefits, but I will, because I am not afraid of the truth!
First of all you must think of the budget of our Federal government the same way you think of your personal household budget, because they are exactly the same! The only difference is that one, the Federal government budget, is much larger. However, they both must be maintained and managed in the same way with the amount of expenses going out not exceeding the amount of income coming in. In both cases if you have too much money going out for expenses and not enough income to cover it, you must borrow money from somewhere in order to continue to function. If you are not able to borrow money in enough time to cover all your expenses some of your functions will not get paid. As a result, some functions have to stop until you get the money to start them again. For example, in your own personal budget if you do not have money to cover the costs, you may have to stop certain services like streaming services, until you come up with the money to pay it later. Our government had a “fiscal year” deadline of September,30, 2025 to come up with a way to borrow money to pay for the expenses of the government including its benefits programs, SNAP and others, but it did not meet the deadline. In plain English, OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RAN OUT OF MONEY! IT WENT BANKRUPT! Contrary to what is promoted in the media and common culture, our government does not have endless sources of money and credit. Every fiscal year the US government must come up with a new budget and credit to fund it for the year. If they do not meet the deadline, they can shut down the government to prevent further bills from accumulating. When they do this the government remains shut down until they come up with a plan to fund the government.
Our federal government has been bankrupt ie running in red for decades due to deficit spending. This means our government has been spending money it does not have yet by using credit given to it by other countries. The main country that has been giving the US government credit is China, which has been doing this for decades. Reports state that in recent years China has cut off most of its credit to the US, because the US has not paid its credit debt in a timely manner back to China, but actually defaulted on September 30th this year. On top of that, President Trump unwisely issued tariffs against China who is our main lender, not surprisingly China cut off much our credit! This has led to there not being enough money to keep our government open and therefore has led to the stopping SNAP/EBT. Furthermore, since the US imports most of its goods from China, this has led to the price of all products going up again as they did under the Biden administration. Many things including endless foreign wars and military entanglements abroad, maintaining military bases in other countries, and providing financial aid to foreign countries and undocumented immigrants have led to our money running out. It is not racism saying we cannot support extra populations such as undocumented immigrants, it is economic reality. The truth is we do not have the money to keep our own government going, not to mention anyone else. We are trillions of dollars in debt to foreign countries all over the world. Below is a picture of the US national debt clock taken from an article in Yahoo finance. CLICK LINK BELOW for article.
The national debt is finally a real-world problemhttps://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-national-debt-is-finally-a-real-world-problem-201502419.html
In 2001 on September, 10th, one day before the historic 911 terrorist attack in New York, Donald Rumsfeld, who was then Secretary of Defense, made the announcement that 2.3 trillion dollars could not be tracked in the defense budget due to “outdated and inefficient financial systems.” This is a fancy way of saying that they could not figure out where the money went, so in actuality they lost 2.3 trillion dollars of Federal money. This is another example of how over the decades national money has “mysteriously” disappeared. All these events contribute to money being taken from one government program, for example SNAP and Section 8 housing, and being moved over to another program such as the War department. In the meantime, SNAP and Section 8 lack the funding to continue until they are re-funded.
DONALD RUMSFELD ANNOUNCES THE DISAPPEARENCE OF 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS: YOUTUBE VIDEO
On November 1st this year funding for SNAP was suspended because the National government could not find the money to keep it going. This is also why the Federal government had to shut down because there was not enough money to keep it open. What had been reported by the mainstream media as in fighting between an uncaring racist group in the Republican party and an empathetic caring group on the Democratic side, is an overly simplistic view of what is really happening. Here is my view of it. On one side you have Neo Democrats who did not want to re-open the government because the new budget proposed by the Republicans did not include continued funding to support undocumented immigrants. And on the other side, even though the Republicans make up the majority in our legislature, according to the rules of our government, they still needed 3 more people to vote on their side to reopen the government with or without provisions for undocumented immigrants. Therefore, our government remained closed until at least 3 of the Democrats came over to the Republican side to vote for the Republican plan to open the government. If the government reopened under the Republican plan the process for funding SNAP benefits could begin immediately, and future negotiations for immigrant provisions could also begin. For five weeks none of the Democrats would join with the Republicans to reopen the government. They wanted to punish the Republicans for their stance on immigration and the Affordable Care Act, even if it affected the ability of current American citizens to feed their families.
On October 31, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell of Rhode Island along with another federal judge in Massachusetts stepped in to provide some relief to SNAP recipients by ruling that the USDA must use the $5 billion it has in contingency funds for SNAP. The USDA is the US Department of Agriculture which funds SNAP. This was only partial funding for SNAP from emergency funds to provide at least partial benefits to recipients temporarily until more money could be found if and when the government reopened.
On Sunday November 8th, 2025, a group of eight Democrats crossed over from the Democratic party to vote with the Republicans to pass the bill to re-open the government. This was about 40 days into the shutdown. The Democrats involved in this decision included Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Democrats admitted that they allowed the shutdown to go on so long to pressure the Republicans to renew tax credits programs to prevent insurance prices increasing in the Affordable Care Act. Republicans had stated from the beginning that they were not going to consider health care negotiations while the government was shut down. Republicans stated that Affordable Care act negotiations would begin again as soon as the government re-opened. For over a month both political parties were locked into a game of chicken. Each political party hoped the other side would cave in first, rather than come to a compromise to keep a food crisis from sweeping the nation for recipients of SNAP/EBT. However, now that this was accomplished, this was only the first step to getting the bill passed to fund the Federal government. The House of Representatives would now have to vote on the bill to get it passed so it could be signed into law by President Trump.
Finally on November 12, 2025, The House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill to re-open the government, and President Trump signed the bill, officially ending the longest government shutdown in US history which lasted 43 days. Two key elements of the bill are that it provides enough money to fund the Federal government through the end of January 2026, and it provides enough money to the USDA to keep the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) functioning for a year through September 2026. What must be kept in mind is that as soon as these deadlines are reached, we will have to go through a repeat drama about how these agencies will be funded again.
The moral of this story is to always have a plan B if you are dependent on government food benefits. Meaning, for example when you can, try to set extra food aside. Make plans to purposely go to stores where things can be bought in bulk and set extra portions aside. Buy inexpensive storage containers from Dollar Tree and other similar vendors to store things such as rice, beans, and other shelf stable foods. Learn how to cook such things as dry beans and rice from scratch. There are many excellent, tasty and easy recipe videos for this on YouTube, such as the one I have included at the bottom of this post. Then you can use the remainder of your money to purchase more perishable items. The bottom line is when you can, set and stash extra food away, because now it is a necessity. From now on we will not be able to rely on food charities, because they now will be overrun by people needing help. When you see food that is on sale, that you eat on a regular basis, buy it in bulk and set it aside for emergencies! We will now have to become our own food charities! I have to warn you, because our government has no money, we will probably experience this situation with SNAP/EBT again. The government will continually have to find new ways to fund itself. The days of stable funding for SNAP/EBT are gone. You will have to become your own safety net!
RICE AND BEANS MAKE AN EXCELLENT MEAL: VIEW IN YOUTUBE VIDEO BELOW !!!!!!!!
REFERENCES
Benjamin Fulford: Weekly Reports: Israel, US government and Trump presidency may end this week, October 13, 2025
Yahoo!Finance: The national debt is finally a real-world problem: by Rick Newman · Senior Columnist
Updated October 30, 2023 (Picture of National Debt Clock)
EPOCH TIMES: Morning Brief: Federal Judges Order USDA to Pay SNAP Benefits During Shutdown, November 1, 2025
EPOCH TIMES: Morning Brief: Food Stamps Suspended as Congress Fails to Reach Deal, November 2, 2025
msn: Democrats Concede Shutdown Fight Without Health Care Win in Hand: by Steven T. Dennis and Erik Wasson, November 10, 2025
EPOCH TIMES: Trump Signs Bill to Reopen Government, Ending Record-Long Government Shutdown, November 12, 2025
VIDEOS
YouTube: Donald Rumsfeld announces 2.3 Trillion missing from the Pentagon on September 10th 2001: Channel: Traditional Catholic
YouTube: Rice & Beans are elite, especially in times of need | How To Cook Pinto Beans & Rice: Channel: Simply Mamá Cooks