{"id":36,"date":"2025-10-27T13:34:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T13:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/?p=36"},"modified":"2025-11-06T12:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T12:53:12","slug":"let-them-eat-shutdown-cake-the-politics-of-full-plates-and-empty-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/?p=36","title":{"rendered":"Let Them Eat Shutdown Cake \u2014 The Politics of Full Plates and Empty Promises"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">It\u2019s always easier to talk about \u201ctightening belts\u201d when yours is made of imported leather. During the shutdown, food assistance froze \u2014 but the catered luncheons went on. Some people worry about groceries; others worry about their next donor dinner\u2019s wine pairing.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The New Aristocracy in Business Suits<\/h3>\n<p>Marie Antoinette never filed an expense report, but her spirit lives on in modern halls of power. Our elected elite dine on \u201cfiscal responsibility\u201d while the shelves at food pantries grow bare. They debate hunger from the comfort of full plates, assuring the nation that shared sacrifice tastes best when everyone else is fasting.<\/p>\n<h3>Government \u00e0 la Mode<\/h3>\n<p>Shutdowns are the political version of a crash diet \u2014 imposed by those who never miss a meal. It\u2019s ideology wrapped in pastry: looks principled, feels rich, and leaves everyone else hungry. There\u2019s always funding for perks, offices, and optics, but never for the programs that actually keep families from skipping dinner.<\/p>\n<h3>Cake for the Few, Crumbs for the Many<\/h3>\n<p>In this modern Versailles, compassion is out of budget. While workers wait for back pay and children for school meals, speeches about \u201cfiscal prudence\u201d echo like the clinking of silver cutlery. Somewhere, an aide whispers, \u201cLet them eat shutdown cake,\u201d and the cameras roll.<\/p>\n<p>History has a sweet tooth for irony \u2014 and this batch is baking nicely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s always easier to talk about \u201ctightening belts\u201d when yours is made of imported leather. During the shutdown, food assistance froze \u2014 but the catered luncheons went on. Some people worry about groceries; others worry about their next donor dinner\u2019s wine pairing. The New Aristocracy in Business Suits Marie Antoinette never filed an expense report, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fatina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfidy.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}