For Tea Party Republicans like Ted Cruz and Michele Bachmann, the government shutdown is a fun game to play. They get a lot of limelight, while poor people get the shaft.
Cruz and Bachmann and other rightwing Republicans don't believe in any positive role for government.
So they're not bothered by the shutdown, and they are so callous that they can't feel the pain they're inflicting on poor people.
The government shutdown is threatening to close down the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program in many states. "Over 8.9 million moms and kids under five living near or below the poverty line rely on the program's supplemental vouchers for healthy food, breastfeeding support, infant formula, and other necessities dispensed at clinics nationwide," according to Forbes.
At least one state has already stopped accepting new people into the program; others may start closing down entirely by next week, as the federal government has stopped funding the program during the shutdown.
Ted Cruz and Michele Bachmann aren't taking candy out of the mouths of babes; they're actually taking breast milk and infant formula out of the mouths of babes.
And they're also setting back the Head Start program, which is designed to help out poor children.
There are 1,600 Head Start programs across the country, and they've started to close down, one after another.
Working mothers who had their kids enrolled in Head Start now face the unenviable choice of staying home with their kids and risking losing their jobs, or finding some other arrangement for them on the fly, arrangements that are likely to be not as good -- and not as safe -- as Head Start.
This is what the government shutdown means: It's a form of Republican child abuse.
Photo: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons licensed.
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