U.S. President Joe Biden and one of his top aides warned on Monday that a federal government shutdown could cause widespread suffering, including a rapid loss of food benefits for nearly 7 million low-income women and children.

Biden told a meeting on Historically Black Colleges and Universities that failure by Congress to fund the federal government would have dire consequences for the Black community, including by reducing nutritional benefits, inspections of hazardous waste sites and enforcement of fair housing laws.

He said he and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had agreed a few months ago on spending levels for the government.

“We made a deal, we shook hands,” he said. “Now a small group of extreme House Republicans … don’t want to live up to that deal, and everyone in America could be faced with paying the price for it.”

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This will just encourage the Freedom Caucus, because finally they would be hurting the correct people.

    • Igloojoe@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      They started with starving kids of their school lunches. Now for bigger ambitions.

  • eee@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Unfortunately, like filibusters, government shutdowns are a Pandora’s box. Once they’ve been used as a negotiating tactic once, you can never un-use them.

    That’s not to say this isn’t despicable, but unless there’s bipartisan support to change the process, we’re going to see government shutdowns every time there’s disagreement over funding.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Many didn’t. At times it got so bad they turned to violence against the wealthy. That’s a decent portion of why the government has handouts actually. Bread and circuses is a very famous and long-standing technique to prevent open rebellion for a reason.

    • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      They used to be allowed to gather and sow all over. The government has made that illegal.

    • kimpilled@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Subsistence farming. However:

      1. Farming blows

      2. If everyone has to farm then no one can specialize to do other things

      3. If you think the USA is a car-dependent sprawl that’s terrible for the environment currently, wait until literally everyone has enough land to sustain themselves and requires infrastructure to connect it all

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    LOL

    The guys who’ve made 100+ billion appear out of thin air for another country’s war are totally concerned about hunger.

    • kimpilled@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Literally just old shit we had in the closet. It’s not pallets of cash, it’s the value of the old equipment that we no longer need to store.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Your argument would have legs if the cost of those expenditures were to be deducted from the next budget, but you know it won’t be, and you know I’m right.

        That said, yes, Congress has appropriated over $100,000,000,000 for another country’s war.

        My point stands.

        • kimpilled@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          So instead of what you originally said (that we magicked up extra money for Ukraine), your argument is that we’re using money that we spent anyway, and would keep spending regardless in order to maintain our global standing? Very persuasive.

    • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So your saying that the majority of congress would vote to feed the poor? Last I checked they voted to not feed even the poor children.

      Seriously a stupid take.