ok, this question is driving our group crazy!

Some Crisis Cards require a player to discard skill cards.

Example--
"Food Shortage"
President chooses:
a) - 2 food
b) - 1 food. President discards 2 Skill Cards; then the current player discards 3 Skill Cards.

What happens if the current player lacks the number of Skill Cards required to discard? How about if the President lacks them? May the player still choose that option?

Thanks!!

Yes, you can choose to do it even if you don't have the cards.

There are exceptions, like if discarding a card is part of a voluntary action (like jumping from ship to ship, or Roslin activating a location) but generally if it is a Crisis Card, then you can pick the discard option even if you don't have the cards.