In MAGA stronghold, fury over SNAP but little blame for Trump in shutdown [View all]

Liz Hill has braced for the worst in the southern tip of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s district, working to stretch her disabled older brother’s food assistance benefits as the longest government shutdown in history pushes into a second month.

She drives two hours to a cheaper grocery store, armed with a fist full of coupons. She can’t remember the last time she hasn’t cooked meat that wasn’t on sale. And she’s become a regular at a nearby food pantry — a circumstance Hill, 58, a college graduate and the director of 911 for nearby Evangeline parish, never expected for herself.

She lays the blame for the uncertainty on Washington politics, but she is more reserved when talking about two of the most influential politicians at the center of the impasse:

“Mike Johnson and Trump — I like them. I like some of the things they’re doing now. I think they have good ideas. But I just think the fighting that’s going on with the government shutdown is ridiculous.”

Johnson’s district — a reliably red slice of western Louisiana — has one of the highest usage rates of the Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program in the nation, with nearly 1 in 5 households here relying on benefits. But in interviews, several people who rely on SNAP and voted for Johnson and President Donald Trump did not fault the Republican leaders, even as Trump waited until payments were set to lapse for 42 million Americans before publicly pressuring the GOP to end the shutdown.

https://wapo.st/4oVPmsX