While grocery prices continue to climb, there exists in this nation a warped focus in the government that would shame the robber barons of the Gilded Age.
Nine months into this administration, we have witnessed a federal government that can conjure $40 billion for an Argentine bailout, a sum that will primarily benefit international bondholders and wealthy investors. We have watched $172 million materialize for a cabinet secretary's Kristi Noem’s jets. We have seen $300 million allocated for a presidential ballroom that the White House press secretary herself declared the administration's "top priority." More than $100 million in taxpayer funds have flowed to the president's own golf properties since January, funding his trips there and the first lady's separate accommodations. And we have learned that a retrofitted Qatari aircraft will become Air Force One at a cost exceeding $400 million and could go as high as $943 million.
Yet here in Mississippi, where 57,546 elderly citizens, 178,441 children under 16, and 157,768 disabled residents depend on food assistance to survive, the administration has allocated precisely nothing for emergency nutrition support during the government shutdown—even as grocery prices have surged nearly 3 percent since September.
This is not fiscal conservatism. This is not even hypocrisy. This is cruelty masquerading as governance.
The tariff regime imposed by this president has functioned exactly as economists predicted: as a regressive tax on American consumers. Every family shopping for groceries feels it. Every fixed-income senior sees their purchasing power evaporate. Every disabled Mississippian on a limited budget makes impossible choices between food and medicine.
Meanwhile, gold leaf is being applied somewhere in Washington, D.C..
The question facing us is not complicated: What kind of nation builds palaces while children go hungry? What kind of government upgrades presidential aircraft while the elderly skip meals? What kind of leader charges taxpayers for luxury accommodations at his own properties while disabled citizens see their food assistance flatline?
The answers should disturb every American regardless of party. This is not about partisan politics. This is about priorities. It is about a government that has lost sight of its fundamental obligation to its most vulnerable citizens.
Congress appropriates funds. Congress can redirect them yet the House of Representatives under Mike Johnson is on vacation rather than looking for solutions.
The elderly woman choosing between her blood pressure medication and groceries understands. The disabled veteran stretching his food stamps through another week of rising prices understands. The mother watching her children's portions shrink understands.
They all understand that when a government can afford everything except helping hungry Americans, something has gone fundamentally wrong.
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Editor’s note: Joseph McCain is the publisher. He has worked in the newspaper industry for over 30 years and may be reached at 662-803-5236 or email reporter@choctawplaindealer.com.
