800,000 is terrible, but 37,000,000 is catastrophic
I can't even imagine how difficult it must be to be one of the 800,000 government workers who are getting laid off with no pay or forced to work for free. Not all government workers will get back pay either - especially those who are considered "independent contractors." Many of them won't get so much as a dime.
Making America "Great" by turning American workers into slaves for - oh, two or three months, maybe two or three years. But all you Federal workers are just fine with this. We know this because the malignant narcissist in the White House came on TV and told us so. Or maybe he tweeted that one. It's so hard to keep up these days, especially when your mind keeps obsessing about going hungry along with 38 Million other Americans who must depend on food stamps (SNAP) that will lose their funding in 3 weeks when February rolls around.
Me, I'm 67 but I became disabled when I was 51. The catastrophic medical bills cut through my savings like a hot knife through butter. These days I get by on a tiny social security check, a housing voucher and SNAP. There's no margin for error in my monthly budget. I consider it to be a good month when I manage to hit the 30th with my rent and electric bills paid up; my Internet didn't get turned off (not this time, anyhow); and some eggs, bread and coffee to tide me over until there's money on my SNAP card again.
I volunteer as an advocate with the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition when I'm able to. I could tell you all so many heartbreaking stories about low income disabled people around here. There's the woman a judge sent to the county jail for being a schizophrenic. She languished there for months with no evaluation and certainly no treatment. I know of more people than I can count who are disabled and homeless who camp on the public lands.
And I will never forget the woman and her son with Downs Syndrome. She was trying to leave her abusive husband and had managed to finally escape the little fundamentalist Mormon town they had been living in. Mother and son also camped out in a trailer on public land. CCDC had been trying to arrange for housing and medical care for both of them. Then one day the local social services office told the Mom that she and her son did not qualify for food stamps. That poor woman was so beaten down that she went into hysterics at the news and threatened to kill herself. Terrible, terrible situation.
Many people in my small town on Colorado's mostly rural Western Slope aren't doing as well as I am. I am next door neighbors with both the Ute Reservation and the Navajo Nation. The poverty among many of the Utes and Navajo is simply heart breaking. Any time I want to start feeling sorry for myself, all I have to do is walk down the dirt road that leads to the mostly Ute town of Toawoc. It's like stepping into the third world. Folks who live there are largely dependent on programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a Federal Agency which is now also going unfunded. Always hit the most vulnerable first, right?
We don't have any of those cool Colorado resort jobs around here. It's mostly low wage agricultural and tourist trade work. Retirees with decent pensions give the local economy a shot in the arm, but we need more than just shots. Sometimes I think we need a war. What will the people who depend on food stamps do come next month? Two of the local churches trade off on running the soup kitchen. What will happen to that soup kitchen when it becomes overwhelmed by the need to help all the people who suddenly no longer have the means to put food on their tables? The Federal commodities program which distributes food boxes to qualifying low income folk will not be funded either.
Then I try to imagine all the other communities both large and small; urban and rural all across the nations that will be experiencing the same frankly impossible situation that we will be here. Worst of all, little kids are going to go hungry. You can't just suddenly throw 38 million people at private charities and community soup kitchens that were already overwhelmed and expect that the hungry will get fed. Some of us won't.
Oh, how I despise Donald Trump.
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you and me both 
Hugging you back! 
He was the one who informed me of the plight of at least some independent contractors. Maybe it's different from one agency to the next or maybe it's changed since back in the day when he worked for them. 
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If we can’t feel each other’s pain in situations like this, what is the point of society....
Sending you hugs and hopes for much better days, and meanwhile, peace in your heart.
Thank you!
What are our values as a society? In reality, there is only one - money. The poor are viewed with suspicion if not outright contempt. If anyone thinks that this country has an actual social safety net, think again. The poor are hounded over every last penny with threats of the loss of "benefits" if they manage to get so much as $20 ahead of the game. Meanwhile, corporate welfare becomes more burdensome to the people of this country by the day. With a mere handshake and a wink wink, billions if not trillions get stashed away in offshore banks. Yet our government cares more about harassing people like you and me over a lousy one dollar from COLA.
What you say is heartbreaking. I struggled a couple of times in my life, needing to rely on the kindness of others in order to eat or have a place to live, so I know a little of what you’re saying. The constant worry was always accompanied by the grip of knots in my stomach and the fear of not knowing what would happen next. Someone said that poverty is violence and they were right.
