The fast-approaching suspension of SNAP funds to 40 million Americans has spurred a flurry of state level responses. South Carolina is activating an emergency fund that will use existing distribution outlets to get food to people. In Rhode Island the governor is allocating special TANF funding to help families and extending emergency funding to the RI Community Food Bank. And Democratic officials in 25 states are suing the federal government over the suspension SNAP benefits.

(It’d be great if WV could sign onto that lawsuit, as one of the poorest states in the union and in desperate need of these funds to feed people, but the state government sold its soul to President Grievance years ago in the hope it would somehow personally benefit them at the expense of the people who pay their salaries.)

Here in WV our useless failure of a Republican governor, Patrick Morrisey, threw up his hands and said that there’s no money in the state coffers to help, oh well, what can you do?

Please keep in mind that there are 280,000 West Virginians on SNAP.

Well there must have been some push back because late on Tuesday, Morrisey announced his new plan to help:

I don’t know how much time was spent on this idea, but I can guess that there was very little thought put into it. Just off the top of my head, here are the problems with this idea:

–State funding will only be provided on an ongoing basis, as matches. It could take weeks or months to get all of the matching funds.

–There literally is no promise to actually match the funds. It says that the state “can” match them up to $13 million. It does not say that it will do so.

–One of the charities only operates in a handful of WV counties—the rest of the state is out of luck.

–That same charity feeds people in WV, OH, and KY. Why are WV tax dollars going to be sent to KY and OH? How is that responsible behavior by the governor?

–The other charity doesn’t have a scheduled visit from its mobile pantry for my county until November 17. WTF?

This is an amateur response to a serious problem here in WV. It’s glib, stupid, and useless.

There are lots of food banks in WV. The governor has known since at least March that a government shutdown was coming and that there was a possibility that SNAP funds would be cut off. A competent governor would have updated—or created—a plan that serves every county. It would have ID’d the biggest food banks in each part of the state. It would have set up emergency funding that food banks could have tapped into.

Instead we have this pointless clusterfuck where only part of the state will get expedited help, WV tax monies appear to going to OH and KY as part of this half-assed plan, and the onus for the entire amount to be spent is on the people of WV—THOUSANDS OF WHOM ARE LOSING THEIR SNAP ASSISTANCE—stepping up and immediately donating $13 million to these 2 inadequate distribution systems.

There is only one solution going forward:  don’t put Republicans in charge of anything. Don’t do it.

I needed to hear this again–maybe you did, too: