Several reason come to mind in response. One, this is a presidential election year which results in much higher democratic turnout. Two, last time DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz fumbled continuously in reminding voters about that 2013 fiasco for some impossible to explain reason. Three, the Tea Party got creamed, dropping their support to single digit numbers. And lastly, but more important than anything else, SNAP may not have enough money to give anybody on food stamps anything and that is the kind of thing that gets people dead, and not just politically.
If they shut the government down because 22% of America wants it to, imagine how furious the remaining 78% are going to be, especially if a lot of those people are suddenly facing starvation. "An Army travels on it's stomach," goes the old adage, and this army will be filled with approximately 45 million recipients and their families, totaling near 100 million pissed off people, not to mention constant media reminders about it. To say the lives of anyone putting Planned Parenthood over the starving masses is in danger is an understatement. People kill more for food than anything else when things go south, as you cannot survive without it.
The smarter Republicans, like Mitch McConnell (I know, really?), are struggling to find a compromise for which the democrats hold all the cards. They have zero vested interest in helping the GOP escape a mess of their own making and know that if they go through with the utterly asinine proposal, they will fail big time in 2016, perhaps even destroying the party once and for all. It is entirely possible that McConnel will help pass a clean budget in the Senate and then give it to Boehner, who will get help from democrats, something that may cost him his leadership position. The democrats must be smiling ear from ear knowing that they have backed themselves into a corner from which there be no escape.
Besides food stamps ending, a beyond destructive idea, social security may be affected (although that seems unlikely right away), parks and museums will be shuttered and anyone working for the ferderal government will either be sent home or works without pay. Without food stamps, major supermarkets, especially Walmart, will lose billions in lost revenue, sending their stock and the market with it down the drain. Last time, the stock market lost 1000 points the next day, and we were far better off in 2013 than now. They might even inadvertently trigger a massive recession because of this. 2013 caused a loss of $24 billion dollars. This one might be double, even triple that due to economic factors that will have a ripple effect across the economy.
Candidates like Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina will take the brunt of hostility should this go through, effectively not only ending the political ambitions, but if this drags on and people can't buy food, assassination attempts may not be out of the realm of possibility. People will be PISSED and Obama and the democrats see little fall out from their side on this, as they would be protecting Planned Parenthood, abortion rights and women's health, important to a majority of this country. The vocal minority is about to self destruct and might take the GOP down with them when voters punish them in 2016, a real possibility.
So keep it up guys, you stand on a high, steep cliff looking down. And behind you are the angry masses just looking for an excuse to push you guys off. You have been warned and while I do not believe that violence is a good idea, I completely understand why you may be ripped to pieces by a starving, angry mob that you just told to go eat cake. Stop being stupid. Your very lives, and your families, may indeed depend on this.
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