Dear Editor:

One in eight families in Lincoln County depend on SNAP benefits for at least part of their food budget. The funding also supports our grocery stores and farmers.  

The Republicans in Congress are blaming the Democrats for the government shutdown and the loss of SNAP benefits. But Congress specifically anticipated this situation and appropriated the funding to maintain benefits. The Republicans decided to hold the poorest amongst us, and the least able to fight back, hostage.  

The currentcourt-ordered partial restoration of SNAP benefits will still leave millions hungry. 

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has sent the House home for what is becoming a six-week holiday with no loss of pay or benefits. Trump has been boasting about the gold-plated faucets in a refurbished White House bathroom. The East Wing of the White House has been demolished to make way for a gilded $300 million ballroom. On Halloween night the rich and famous partiedat Mar a Lago. The billionaires in America have never had it so good. 

In this, the richest country the world has ever seen, the poor are getting poorer and hungrier day by day.In the next few weeks massive increases in health insurance costs will force millions ofadditional families to choose between food and health insurance. Next year millions more families will be tossed off the Medicaid (MaineCare in Maine) rolls. All to provide tax cuts for the wealthy. 

Funding billionaire excess has become more important than feeding the poor and providing healthcare. We have lost our moral compass. 

Nigel Calder 

Newcastle