Longest U.S. Government Shutdown Sparks Nationwide Crisis

Congratulations to World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers! Americans love to watch their favorite sports teams win championships and set records. Well now Team USA is about to set a new record – for the longest government shutdown in history. As the shutdown enters its second month and the funds for government operations and programs run out, more and more Americans are starting to feel the pain.

Over the weekend, 42 million Americans – nearly one-eighth of the country – who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to feed themselves and their families, lost their food stamps for the first time in the program’s history. This is the nation’s largest anti-hunger program.

Two federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to tap an emergency reserve with billions of dollars for food assistance, and the White House finally agreed to restore a partial benefit. But much hurt has already been done. Partial benefits will not provide sufficient nutrition for these families. Even if Congress soon ends the current stalemate and funds the government, it would take many weeks or longer to fully restore back benefits. Happy Thanksgiving, to these poor fellow Americans.

But food assistance is not the only policy area that is being impacted by the government shutdown. Here is a rundown of other areas, which affects conservatives, liberals and independents alike:

Military pay: more than a million members of the US military missed their pay checks last week. About a quarter of military families are “food insecure” and 15% rely on food assistance. The Military Family Advisory Network estimates that 27% of families have $500 or less in emergency savings. Showing sympathy, the Trump administration has accepted a $130 million gift from a wealthy donor, Timothy Mellon of the old money Mellon dynasty, to help pay salaries during the shutdown, certainly a generous donation (though likely illegal since it was not appropriated or approved by Congress). But that only works out to $100 for each of the 1.3 million active-duty service members expecting to be paid. Notably, President Trump was not willing to solicit private donations to pay for food stamps.

Heating assistance: around six million American families use a federal assistance initiative, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, to help pay their utility bills. Many states bar natural gas and electric companies from cutting off service to people who do not pay their bills, but those rules do not apply to propane or heating oil, which many households use. As the weather grows colder, many households face tough decisions over how to stay warm unless the government reopens.

Nuclear safety: The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, said it is furloughing approximately 1400 employees. The agency is responsible for overseeing thousands of nuclear warheads. It also serves as the first responder for nuclear or radiological emergencies. Only about 400 employees remain on the job, so whatever you do, don’t spring a leak in your local nuclear power plant.

Education: 87% of Department of Education employees have been furloughed. Only a skeleton crew is left. The Trump administration is also trying to use a new round of layoffs to gut multiple offices inside the department, including offices overseeing special education and civil rights.

Air traffic controllers: With nearly half of the 30 busiest U.S. airports facing severe shortages of air traffic controllers, travelers are experiencing flight cancellations and several hour delays at airports all across the country. The nation’s 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration staff are considered “essential workers” and required by law to work without pay during the shutdown. But that’s stressful, so some controllers have had to take second jobs to make ends meet. Thousands have been calling in sick. Nearly 80 percent of air traffic controllers have been absent at New York–area facilities, with Dallas and other airports reporting staffing-related delays. Thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled, stranding passengers and with problems mounting daily.

Federal civilian workers: More than 700,000 federal employees have been furloughed with no pay during this shutdown, which is becoming an increasingly deep financial hardship for workers and their families. Food banks across the US have reported an increase in the number of federal workers asking for help, and some workers have had to take out bank loans to pay the bills. Some have had difficulty accessing unemployment benefits, caught in a Trumpian Catch-22: unemployment benefits are state-based, and the states must verify an applicant’s job status and earnings with their federal employer. But the shutdown has delayed federal agenciesfrom providing this information. With November arriving, these workers were informed that their furlough will be extended another 30 days until December. Not only that, unlike October’s notification which guaranteed back pay once the shutdown ended, this latest notice no longer contains that guarantee. If the shutdown continues until December, some 4.5 million pay checks will have been withheld from federal employees, amounting to $21 billion in missing wages. Happy Thanksgiving!

National parks: The nation’s 63 national parks have remained symbolically open, but the shutdown has turned most parks into ghost towns, with little to no staffing or access to amenities and facilities. Some states, including Utah, Colorado, Tennessee and West Virginia, whose economy is dependent on the tourists that come to their parks, have tapped state budgets to keep the federal parks open.

For the national economy, the government shutdown is endangering the robust GDP growth seen in the summer and early fall. It’s also increasing unemployment, as well as losses for businesses and contractors reliant on federal services. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the five week shutdown in 2018-2019 reduced real GDP by $11 billion, and that some of the lost output was never recovered. We are about to surpass that.

Everyday Americans stepping up to the challenge

All in all, it’s a heck of a mess, with no end in sight. But Americans are an intrepid people, and doing what they must to help each other. An elementary school teacher is raising funds for groceries for his child-students. A hair salon owner is taking donations and redistributing them to her poorer clients. Grocery buddies are sponsoring a neighbor’s family. Restaurants, local soup kitchens and food pantries are stepping up where the federal government has fallen down. State governments in California, New York and elsewhere are making up some of the lost federal funds.

There have been fourteen gaps in federal funding since 1981, most of them shutdowns of short duration. The longest previous government shutdown ever was 35 days, which the nation will pass on Wednesday. That one also occurred under Donald Trump, during his first term over a dispute with Congress for funding Trump’s Mexican border wall. But this current fight between Trump and the Congress is about something else – soaring health care costs for tens of millions of Americans.

The looming health care crisis

When President Trump passed his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) last summer, he extended billions of dollars in income tax credits for a handful of the wealthiest Americans. But unfortunately he did not continue Affordable Care Act financial supports that helped a record 24 million Americans to afford healthcare. Consequently, healthcare premiums are about to massively spike on January 1. Healthcare experts at KFF estimate that if the ACA financial supports are allowed to expire, when combined with insurance companies’ premium increases by a record average of 26%, ACA enrollees will see their overall monthly premium payments more than double on average. Millions of Americans will not be able to afford the higher premiums and will likely lose their healthcare entirely.

The White House provides Cadillac benefits for those it favors, and Rent-a-Junk benefits for everyone else. As more people are learning about the Trump administration’s plans for their health care, it is spreading alarm and uncertainty across the country. To their credit, a handful of US Senators, all of them Democrats, have stood up for these panicked Americans by refusing to give the Trump administration the votes it needs to bridge the funding gap. Certainly with all of the hurt that so many Americans are feeling over the government shutdown, it’s natural to wonder who to point the finger. Oftentimes in such situations there is enough blame to go around on both sides.

But this time, let’s not forget what this fight is over – affordable health care for tens of millions of Americans. This is not a time to play politics, it’s time to do the right thing. I sometimes wonder if the federal government would be more responsive if members of the Trump administration and Congress didn’t have Cadillac benefits for themselves, and instead had Rent-a-Junk benefits like millions of their fellow Americans?

Steven Hill was policy director for the Center for Humane Technology, co-founder of FairVote and political reform director at New America. You can reach him on X @StevenHill1776.