I say: grow the hell up. People’s pain is not your victory
By Michael Stone, Andover NY
On October 1st, the federal government failed to pass appropriation legislation for Fiscal Year 2026, with the GOP party majority unable to achieve the 60 votes it needed to pass. Since that time, the finger pointing across the aisle has been coming fast and furious from both sides.
Now, November 1st approaches and the biggest impacts to the most vulnerable among us are nigh. Open Enrollment will begin, but without knowing what subsidies will be available, it is causing mass confusion in an already confusing healthcare system.
Additionally, SNAP and WIC programs are set to run out of funding, leaving the burden of providing food to 42 million Americans (that’s 12.57% of our national population) to private programs, food banks, churches, and (if they are inclined to toss their hat in the ring) state governments.
I’ve heard many arguments from both sides of the GOP and Dem aisles, but the loudest voices are those simply assigning blame or even laughing about the situation in a petulant display of spiteful self-satisfaction, as if the more people suffer, the stronger their political ideology can be affirmed. To all of these people (but especially the latter), I say: grow the hell up. People’s pain is not your victory.
The reality is, if we remove political ideology and party barriers, we’re simply looking at representatives on opposite sides of the table that need to find middle ground. This happens in family relationships, business dealings, even friendships every single day, whether it be negotiating multi-million dollar deals or just trying to decide with your family what to have for dinner that night.
The GOP doesn’t have the votes to pass the appropriations legislation that they want. This means it’s time to come to the table and fix it. Listen to the Democrats and find some middle ground. This is not a weakness, this is governance. This is the fundamental aspect of our Representative Democracy within our Constitutional Republic. I’m 45 years old, which is old enough to remember a time when crossing the aisle and making concessions was not a betrayal of party, it was simply the normal method to get things done.
Instead, aside from introducing some standalone bills to make the shutdown hurt less, there doesn’t seem to be any adults sitting at the table trying to find that middle ground to help the American people that they represent. Votes keep getting called for the same old CRs and stopgap bills, and getting the same results, which leads us nowhere.
Outside of the hallowed halls of the Senate, the blame game seems to be more the point than finding resolution. Misinformation, TV ads, quippy names, even attempts to air blaming segments on TVs in airports dominate the cultural conversation.
SNAP and WIC recipients have been vilified in their own right – labelled as professionally unemployed and lazy. The fact is that 86% of SNAP households with at least one non-disabled, working age adult have reported earnings over the past year (sources: USDA, US Department of Commerce, US Census Bureau). Many of these people (your neighbors, friends, and loved ones) *do* work – and oftentimes work hard. Why their monthly wages are so low they can’t afford to sufficiently feed their families is a different topic that is too broad to cover here, but by and large, these individuals do work.
As far as the Democrats asking for “illegals” to get free healthcare, that is a bald-faced lie and it is infuriating the number of people happy to repeat it without checking the content of the Democrat CR, freely available for public viewing. They are asking for:
1. Permanent extension of ACA subsidies that were temporarily expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing premium increases of up to 75% for millions of Americans.
2. Reversal of Medcaid cuts enacted earlier in 2025
3. Limits on Executive Spending Authority.
4. Funding for Government Security (which mirrors a GOP provision for the same)
5. Restore funding for public radio and television
There is *nothing* in the Democrat CR that would provide undocumented immigrants with free health care. Restoration of Medicaid eligibility, extension of ACA subsidies, and restoration of cuts to health programs would benefit millions of Americans, as well as lawfully present immigrants who are here under federal legal protection. You know: the ones “doing it the right way”.
Is there wiggle room in all of that for the Dems to yield some ground and meet in the middle? Of course there is, and for our sake, they absolutely should. Should they just roll over and give up? Not if they are doing their job.
For good or ill, we are primarily a two-party government. Not one. Within the disagreements of our representatives, we find the middle ground that we would all benefit from (in an ideal world).
What I expect out of all of our elected leaders is to have them sit at that table, piles of empty coffee cups, sweat-stained shirts, and sleepless hours working together until this is resolved. Nothing less.
What I don’t expect is for either side to plant their feet, continue voting on bills they know are destined to fail, and using that as ammunition to build more of a platform for division. If that’s the game they want to play, then it’s up to us to write to them and make our voices heard with our words and our votes.
What’s at stake are the empty tummies of hungry children, and that is fully unacceptable.
Mike Stone is running as an Independent for Village Trustee in Andover.
