Thread by @drvolts

This story is genuinely amazing. It should be in a museum somewhere, to illustrate all the dysfunctions of US politics & media in 2022.

Short thread: politico.com/news/2022/03/0…

Here's what happened: Biden extended the universal free meals programs at the nation's public schools, allowing 10 million additional kids to get lunch. Educators, who unanimously say the program is still very much needed, were all expecting another year's extension. However...

... Mitch McConnell interceded in the major spending bill that's now being assembled. He drew a hard line: no extension of the program. 10 million kids cut off from lunch. Why? And aide called it "an attempt to clamp down on government spending and get schools back to normal."

This is monstrous. Of all the things gov't is spending on ... of all the needs in the country as we still suffer a pandemic + inflation ... McConnell goes HERE to find a little extra money. Food out of 10 million kids' mouths. Fucking *monstrous*.

But ... look at the headline. "Finger-pointing ensues." What? McConnell did it! You can argue over his reasons, but everyone acknowledges he did it! Only one finger need point, in one direction, FFS!

A few 'graphs down: "Democrats and a long list of school groups are pointing at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for taking a hardline stance against extending the waivers."

Because ... he did it!!! That's why they're pointing at him! It's not a question!

And then we get this, from the head of the School Nutritional Association: "Congress' failure to act will undoubtedly cause students to go hungry and leave school meal programs in financial peril."

"Congress" failed to act? "Congress"?! IT. WAS. MCCONNELL.

But SNA is "a group that aligns with both Democrats and Republicans," so it can't tell the real truth. Politico got a quote from a GOP aide saying it's "absurd" to blame the GOP for the thing everyone agrees it just did, so it can't tell the real truth.

So McConnell is yanking lunch out of the mouths of 10 million hungry kids and ***even in the news story about him doing it*** responsibility is smeared all over the place, never attached to him. No accountability. Just more dysfunction from "Congress." 🙄

And I guarantee, this story will pretty much be the last anyone hears of it. 10 million kids will suffer a little more based on Republican sociopathy, and 99.999999% of Americans will never know it. Never know what happened and certainly never know who's to blame.

This is yet another illustration of why Dems can not simply rely on mainstream media to inform the public. Both-sides disease, the sick politesse with which we treat this shit, makes it impossible for the vast bulk of the public to suss out what's happening.

If Dems had their own communication machine, even a fraction of what the right has, they could tell the public: "Republicans want to cut off hungry kids from free school lunch during a pandemic. We want to feed the kids." Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Mitch McConnell should not be able to show his anus-face in public, anywhere, without someone asking him why he's cutting hungry kids off from free lunch. It should haunt him every day, all the way to his goddamn grave. He should wake in cold sweats about it.

Instead: nothing. He'll sleep soundly. Neither he nor his party will pay any political price. The vast majority of people will never hear anything about this, and those who do will feel a vague anger at "Congress."

And millions more kids will go hungry. Yay America. </fin>