Thoughts for the Day, October 30, 2025: Congress. Do your job!!!!!!!!!!
What is wrong with Congress?
Do they not care about millions of federal government employees who are out of work or are working but are not receiving a paycheck because Congress won’t do its job?
Do they not care that 42 million of the most vulnerable Americans will not receive their SNAP benefits because Congress won’t do its job?
How much pain does Congress want to inflict on the American public before Congress wakes up and does what it is supposed to do, which is to fund the government.
These are my Questions of the Day
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SNAP previously known as Food Stamps
In my many years of working with the underserved in Washtenaw County, there was always an undertone from people wanting to know why I volunteered to do so much. The undertone consisted of fellow citizens sometimes stating it explicitly and sometimes implying that so many of “those people” are undeserving of the government handouts and are only getting them because they are too lazy to get a job. There is no incentive for “those people” to work because they can make more money on welfare. “Those people “are only using the money on drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.
Based on my experience, the above is not true. But I know people will not take my word for it. So, I turned to CHAT GPT for some information. Here is what I found.
Overpayment Rate due to administrative and clerical errors (not fraud)
2022=9.84%
2023=10.03%
2024=9.26%
It is estimated that fraud (deliberately falsifying information on application, monetizing the benefits) is a much smaller portion of the overpayments.
Racial makeup of recipients:
Whites=35.4%
African Americans= 25.7%
Hispanics= 15.6%
Asians= 3.9%
Native Americans= 1.3%
Multiracial= 1%
Race Unknown= 17%
Yes, there is fraud in SNAP, just like there is in many government programs. However, fraud makes up a small percentage of the overall payments. In my experience a large majority of those on SNAP are not on it by choice, but on it because of circumstances that are beyond their control. In my working with the underserved, I do not know of one person who was proud to be on SNAP.
As can be seen by the numbers above, SNAP helps all Americans regardless of race. It is not a program that only helps “those people” who refuse to find a job and would rather be on government assistance because they can make more money.
More on SNAP from the Atlantic today: Americans don’t like welfare, but they don’t want to see fellow Americans go hungry,” Christopher Bosso, a political-science professor at Northeastern University and a historian of SNAP, told me. This summer, a poll found that 66 percent of Americans oppose cuts to food assistance. SNAP isn’t a perfect program, but such a sudden disruption would have an immediate material impact: Food banks are already signaling that they might not be able to keep up with demand. Friday’s USDA memo declared that states would not be reimbursed for covering SNAP benefits, and few have committed to doing so. The costs are just too high for some states to cover on their own, especially for those with higher percentages of SNAP recipients.
Social welfare isn’t exactly a priority for the Trump administration. The president’s budget proposals have historically threatened to eviscerate food assistance, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s cuts to SNAP are the largest in U.S. history. For low-income Americans, SNAP can be a lifeline; for this White House, it’s another political tool.
It is time to contact your congressional representative and tell them to get back to work and fund the government.
Another Question of the Day: If our current members of Congress are so worried about fraud in our government programs, why have they reduced significantly the number of IRS auditors and the number of solicitor generals and inspector generals from our government?
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Elissa Slotkin expresses concerns that hit home with me.
From a Detroit News article today. Michigan U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin slammed President Donald Trump’s “secret war” in Latin America against groups suspected of carrying drugs, saying it’s unprecedented for the United States to wage an armed conflict against unnamed adversaries and warned Trump’s enemies at home could be next.
“America deserves to know who we’re in armed conflict against,” Slotkin told The Detroit News. “No secret wars against secret groups.”
“If he keeps a secret list of groups that we’re going after in the Caribbean, are we going to also have a secret list of domestic terrorist organizations? And then what exactly is he going to do to target those organizations?” she said.
“Of course, he’s floated and his advisors have floated things like (the Democratic groups) Indivisible and Act Blue ― like, political opponents. ... To me, it’s the implication for domestic groups that should send a shiver down the spine of every American.”
“I don’t say this lightly, but I think between the strikes in the Caribbean, his efforts to identify domestic terrorists and his deployment of force in American cities, that seems to be where we’re headed,” Slotkin said in the speech.
“I never thought I’d have to lay this out about my own government. This is the kind of stuff that is fundamentally un-American and strikes at the heart of who we are as a people.”
She warned that the next move out of the “authoritarian playbook” would see Trump invoking the Insurrection Act and trying to impose martial law, potentially allowing for elections to be canceled.
“Congress needs to reclaim our power like yesterday over the use of force,” Slotkin said. “We need to start pushing back where we don’t agree on how force is being used.”
A former CIA analyst and top Pentagon official under President Barack Obama, Slotkin worked in national security when the U.S. was targeting groups like the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. She said lawyers for the Pentagon in recent weeks have refused to provide to senators a list of the alleged terrorist groups that the U.S. military has been striking off the coast of Venezuela.
“I said openly that I don’t have a problem with us going after drug cartels and organizations that are bringing in fentanyl,” Slotkin said in an interview.
“But ... there’s just never been a time in history where we’ve been in an active armed conflict with unnamed groups and unnamed intelligence packages, just unknown information. It’s unprecedented,” she added.
“They’re just flouting basic standards of how we prosecute armed conflicts, let alone getting authorization of military force” from Congress under the War Powers Act.
Slotkin sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has held both unclassified and classified briefings on the strikes waged since early September. Four vessels suspected of carrying drugs were hit Tuesday in the eastern Pacific, bringing the total number killed in the attacks to nearly 60 people, according to published reports.
“We asked point-blank, to the general counsel, what is the list of quote, unquote, ‘terrorist groups’ we are now going after in the Caribbean, and how many are there, and he would not tell us the number nor the names of the groups that we are now in armed conflict with,” Slotkin said.
The briefers also refused to provide a copy of the legal memo laying out justification for the strikes, Slotkin said.
“You should have seen the Republicans in the committee. They were just as pissed off by this as anyone on my side of the aisle,” she said.
Based on the amount of firepower and the surge of U.S. troops into the region, Slotkin said, “it’s only natural” to assume that potential strikes on land are possible. “It’s definitely a signal, purposeful,” she said.
Quote of the Day: “You should have seen the Republicans in the committee. They were just as pissed off by this as anyone on my side of the aisle,” Elissa Slotkin
Orchid of the Day: Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Trey Yesavage, the rookie pitcher who started the season in the low A minors, pitched a gem yesterday as he held the Dodgers to one run over 7 innings while striking out 12. The Blue Jays have a 3-2 lead in the series and only need one win in the two games in Toronto to dethrone the Dodgers and claim the World Series Championship. See my Video of the Day
Onion of the Day: Congress. Do your fricking job.
Question of the Day: See above.
Lyrics of the Day: Say you don’t know me or recognize my face
Say you don’t care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night
Lyrics of the Day for October 28, 2025. Centerfield by John Foggerty
Video of the Day: Blue Jays vs. Dodgers Game 5 Highlights ⚾ Trey Yesavage records a rookie WS record 12 K’s | ESPN MLB
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