23. Food Stamps Work—So They Keep Getting Cut

(Hunger isn’t accidental. It’s budgeted.)

Write. Laugh. Hope.

If something helps too many people survive,
they call it abuse.
If it fills stomachs instead of shareholder pockets,
they call it waste.

You needed food.
They gave you shame.
Applications, interviews, ID checks, suspicion—
just to feed your kids.

Meanwhile, tax breaks go to billionaires
with yachts that cost more than every EBT card in your state.

They said it was a “safety net.”
Then poked holes in it
and called you lazy for falling through.

Hunger isn’t a failure of logistics.
It’s a strategy.
Keep people tired.
Keep them scrambling.
Keep them grateful for crumbs
so they don’t ask why the pantry’s locked.

They’re not cutting fraud.
They’re cutting futures.
Because the only thing more threatening than poverty
is poverty with a full belly and a clear mind.

Write. Laugh. Hope.
Because what the hell else is there?