WIC Becomes a Political Football in Shutdown

The Trump administration has said that while the federal government is shut down, tariff revenue will be used to fund a key federal program that provides food aid and other services to nearly 7 million low-income women and young children. However, as the shutdown entered its second week, Republicans and Democrats blamed each other for the program being in financial distress.

U.S. residents are divided on which political party deserves blame for the government being partially shut down. Still, politicians on both sides are right that the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, will remain in jeopardy the longer the shutdown continues. 

“There’s a low-income food program, the WIC program, that my mom actually used when I was a baby. That program is about to be underfunded, and it’s about to get cut off because Chuck Schumer won’t open the government,” Vice President JD Vance said in an Oct. 9 Cabinet meeting, blaming the Senate Democratic leader for the program’s finances.

Meanwhile, some Democratic lawmakers have used social media to counter claims such as Vance’s, placing the blame on Republicans.

“Funding for WIC is running out because of the government shutdown. American women and children will lose food assistance as a direct result of Republicans’ partisan policies,” Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware wrote in an Oct. 9 Facebook post highlighting the potential impact for people in her state. “Cruelty knows no bounds in this administration,” she said.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts also assigned blame to the GOP.