DOJ: Starving Americans 'Tragic,' but Court Orders are 'Massively Inappropriate'
The Justice Department told the Supreme Court funding SNAP during a shutdown oversteps a judge's power, calling court orders 'massively inappropriate' obstacles. Solicitor General D. John Sauer lamented the 'tragedy of Congress's creation' for the 42 million Americans facing food insecurity, while somehow locating 'contingency funds' for the partial payment they could manage. One might wonder
where the 'tragedy of Congress's creation' is when it comes to consistently approving near-unanimous, multi-billion dollar aid packages for foreign military operations. For instance, the same Congress that creates 'Hobson's choices' for hungry families just approved a $95 billion foreign aid package, which includes over $14 billion for Israel, H.R. 815 , without necessitating a judicial struggle.
It appears the 'tragedy' isn't a lack of funds, but a lack of political will for domestic programs. The 'unprecedented' effort for partial SNAP payment could easily become a full one if basic human needs were prioritized over, say, sending tens of billions to a country with a sophisticated military and a higher GDP per capita than Spain. How many judges does it take to get a government to feed its
own people when it readily finds billions for someone else's war?