For the second time in a decade, Washington has shut itself down in a budget standoff, and ordinary Americans are quite literally paying the price. As of this writing, the federal government is in its second month of a shutdown, and 42 million Americans who rely on food stamps got nothing on November 1 — the first time in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s 60-year history that benefits have been fully halted. Think about that: Millions of families woke up hungry because politicians in Washington couldn’t do their jobs. It’s nuts.

After public pleas of desperation and multiple court orders, the Trump administration was forced to turn the food back on, but it’s now appealing that ruling, whiplashing Americans facing acute scarcity and economic anxiety.

We’ve started to accept these crises as routine, like a new season of some twisted reality show. With each episode, the fatigue and fury of being used as political pawns only deepens. But this shutdown is different in a way. For the first time in modern American history, its leader is intentionally starving his own people.

In the United States, federal shutdowns have become de facto political theater — a reckless game of chicken that recurs with grim regularity. Since 1976, Congress has triggered 20 funding gaps resulting in 10 full or partial shutdowns, with the longest stretching 35 days. What was once unthinkable has become almost seasonal. Autumn rolls around, and Americans brace for the familiar countdown to chaos: Will our representatives fund the government, or take it hostage?

The current saga began like so many before it: a clash of priorities and a collapse of governance. House Republicans pushed their budget cuts that would imperil health care; Senate Democrats insisted they would only vote to pass a budget that extended tax credits on health care and reversed Medicaid cuts. Republicans lack the needed majority to have their way and refuse to compromise with Democrats. Neither would blink, so on October 1, the lights went out. Offices shuttered. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers were sent home or ordered to work without pay. Lawmakers gave floor speeches and media soundbites, and went to politicking. But behind the grandstanding, real families immediately began to hurt.

For the first time in modern American history, its leader is intentionally starving his own people.

To many on Capitol Hill, this is all just part of the show. A shutdown is treated as a leverage move, a stunt to score ideological points or appease extremist donors. In 2013, one senator read Dr. Seuss on the Senate floor during a shutdown, as if it were storytime instead of a national........

© The Intercept