Mechanicville Area Community Service Center’s food pantry shelves are thinly stocked on Wednesday. Similar facilities around the nation braced for a cutoff in federal SNAP funding this weekend.

As of this weekend, the U.S. government has been in “shutdown” mode for more than a month. That’s 32 wasted days that could have been far better spent negotiating the Democrats’ and Republicans’ differences.

Instead of seeking compromise. President Donald J. Trump and Republicans in Congress insist they will only negotiate after the Democrats capitulate and give up the only leverage they have.

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As a result, a staggering 42 million people this month could lose the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that help them pay for food.

That’s 42 million poor and working-class men, women and children who stand to go hungry, to one degree or another, in the richest country in the world. That includes, by the White House’s own numbers, 2.9 million New Yorkers, nearly 1.2 million of them children.

On Friday, two U.S. District Court judges ordered the administration to use emergency reserves to fund SNAP through the shutdown. However, emergency funds won't cover the........

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