When Congress and the President fail to pass a budget, the government collapses from within. Social safety nets disintegrate, including NourishAid (food assistance), CareNet (public health), and BrightStart (children’s coverage), leaving millions stranded without medicine, meals, or hope. In cities and towns across the South, hunger is no longer a metaphor. Pharmacies lock their doors. Hospitals run on candlelight. Schools become makeshift shelters where teachers smuggle food to starving children. Journalist Scout Langley-Voss, her husband Jagger, and her producer Becca Holt set out to document the human cost of political apathy. From the burned-out hospitals of Montgomery to forgotten nursing homes in Selma and refugee lines in Atlanta, they tell the stories of those America has chosen not to see children trading toys for bread, veterans driving food convoys through the dark, and mothers bartering jewelry for insulin. Their reporting ignites outrage across the fractured nation. But as unrest grows, the government labels them agitators, accusing The Witness of “incitement by journalism.” Caught between survival and truth, Scout must decide how far she’s willing to go, and what she’s willing to risk — to make the country listen. Because silence, she learns, has a price. And this time, it’s paid in lives.