This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
As we return from the Thanksgiving holiday, we know some of our neighbors are hungry. Some are detained. And millions more are anxious about what will happen next month, when the federal government once again teeters on the brink of shutdown.
The recent federal crisis didn’t just expose GOP cruelty. It revealed a party in total control of Washington so committed to dismantling basic government that it was willing to let millions go hungry and lose healthcare to force through a budget that enriches the wealthy. Democrats in Congress faced a lose-lose choice: reopen the government so people could eat, or hold out for healthcare protections that Republican leaders have shown little interest in negotiating. SNAP is restored, for now. But there is no guarantee that Affordable Care Act subsidies will return, and no plan to prevent the next likely GOP-manufactured shutdown in January.
While dysfunction reigns in DC, real governing is happening in the states. Congress may have ground to a halt, but we kept working. As some Republican leaders congratulated themselves for finally turning the lights back on, state lawmakers like us had been scrambling in the dark. We worked late into the night to keep food benefits flowing and childcare centers open. Governors and legislators negotiated emergency funding transfers, tapped rainy-day accounts, called loudly on uncooperative state leaders to use budget surpluses to feed families, and fielded frantic calls from constituents afraid their lifelines would vanish.
