The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to extend a stay on an appeals court order that mandated the payment of full SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans even as the House was preparing to vote Wednesday on the continuing resolution passed by the Senate late Sunday. 

The lower court order prompted at least 11 states to pay out full benefits, but President Donald Trump appealed the order and the Supreme Court decided to pause it.

The confusing patchwork has left residents of some states without any of their benefits, while residents of other states have received full benefits.

The order is extended through midnight on Thursday, but it may be moot by then if the House, as expected, votes to pass the Senate's CR on Wednesday and ends the shutdown.

Could take 2 weeks

If the vote to end the shutdown is successful, though, it will still take time for the federal funding to filter down to the states.

It could be as much as two weeks until SNAP recipients get their funds; coincidentally, this would be Thanksgiving.

While the government bickers over how to do things, people who allowed themselves to depend on the government for their food are going hungry.

Granted, it's a bad idea to be so dependent on government that you can't put food on the table if you don't get your monthly benefits.

However, that is the current situation, and it won't get fixed by just turning off the SNAP spigot, if that's what Trump thinks.

Rice and ramen

The New York Post quoted SNAP recipient Jim Malliard, 41, as saying that he was mostly feeding the family rice and ramen because his account was at $10.

“It’s kind of been a lot of late nights, making sure I had everything down to the penny to make sure I was right,” Malliard said. “To say anxiety has been my issue for the past two weeks is putting it mildly.”

It's never a nice thing to hear about people eating ramen and rice because they can't afford anything else, or to hear that the food banks are running out of food and can't provide for those who come in.

The government is once again proving that it is not reliable to meet people's needs, and if I were a SNAP recipient right now, I would do whatever it took to put some food in storage in case this happens again in February after the CR runs out.

It seems like nothing in the government is working like it's supposed to, and the people with the least are suffering the most because of their dependence.