The Democrats and Republicans continue to fight over funding healthcare issues. Congress and Senators from all states still disagreed on the issues which led to the government shutting down, cutting funding leaving federal workers and undocumented immigrant families unable to support their needs.
According to NBC News, in November snap benefits ( Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ) will not be replenished in debit cards for 42 million Americans making it difficult for families to put food on the table. Snap benefits is a federal program that provides monthly electronic benefits to help them purchase nutritious food, including fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and seeds to grow their own food. This will also lead to funding cuts to food banks across the U.S. Angel Espinosa, a senior, who is in the youth and government program, said, “ the people being most affected by the loss of food stamps are the low income communities, which statistically do happen to be minorities. It’s still an issue of low-income communities being underrepresented and undervalued in the country, and it’s something, like a lot of people, the higher-ups, they believe, oh, it’s just food stamps, you know, not many people have it.
And to them, they have some ideals where they think, oh, it’s just minorities freeloading who came into the country illegally. But the reality is a lot of people who came into the country illegally don’t have access to food stamps, and it’s honestly just hard-working individuals who were born in this country, who just don’t get the same chances.”
According to Center For Immigration Studies, loss of federal funds will lead to low-income families which is 29 percent of all Americans and in that 29 percent, 20 percent of those families are undocumented making it harder for families to support themselves and their children.
Mr. Collins, an ethnic studies, psychology, and U.S history teacher, gave an example of what the healthcare tax credit can do. “If the total amount of your healthcare insurance bill is $400, but that is with what the Democrats are trying to protect; about $250 of the $400 will be paid off; which leaves $150 left of that bill to make it easier and more affordable for families to afford healthcare insurances. Now, if that was gone families would have to pay the full $400 which would leave a lot of families unable to afford it and leaving them without healthcare insurance.”
Furthermore, Ms.Torres, an AP English literature and composition teacher, expressed her fears about the government shutdown, because President Trump and his administration do not want to eliminate the healthcare tax credit, but instead want to increase the payment by two to three times of families’ bills. This action would lead to not only families not having health insurance, but also families would have to choose between what’s more important which would be things like: supplies, food, as well as other bills they have to pay.
The Government shutdown began at 12:00 a.m. on October 1 and is now the eighth shutdown in the last 45 years. Before the shutdown, the Democrats demanded the extension of healthcare tax credit, which would support families including undocumented immigrants across the nation to help pay for their healthcare insurance.
But the Republicans didn’t support the funding, and demanded the Democrats to pay more attention to border-related and immigration financial solutions better than healthcare, and now Snap benefits. According to CBS News, President Donald Trump said, “…must address immigration and border-related matters, otherwise, ‘It’s just not acceptable for us.”
