As of midnight on Oct. 1, our government has officially shut down. But what is a Federal Government Shutdown, and why does it happen?
Government shutdowns happen when a budget cannot be passed through Congress due to a lack of votes. Contrary to popular belief, government shutdowns are pretty normal and happen every handful of years, with our last one happening in 2018 and lasting for 35 days — the longest government shutdown in history.
But this doesn’t mean that government shutdowns are a good thing, nor are they exactly an effective way to push a budget.
Government shutdowns are the result of an extremely partisan Congress, where those on either side of the aisle will not negotiate a deal that satisfies both parties and makes their constituents happy.
The government shutdown will impact millions of Americans. Workers deemed as essential will continue their jobs, but they will not get paid. This includes military members, those in manufacturing companies, federal law enforcement agencies and so many more. However, workers will receive back pay for the time worked.
In Connecticut, we will certainly be feeling the impact. The naval submarine base in New London, Connecticut, employs nearly 8,000 federal workers, along with the Coast Guard academy that employs 1,000. This is just a fraction of the federal workers in Connecticut and an even smaller fraction of people who will be impacted as a whole.
Nationwide, everyday citizens will feel the impacts of the shutdown. Necessities for many like Social Security, Medicaid, veterans’ claims, housing assistance and more will be put on hold until the government can come to an agreement on the federal budget this year. This is on top of the nearly 750,000 federal employees whose jobs will be suspended for the entirety of the shutdown.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican serving Louisiana’s fourth district, is putting the blame on Democrats, taking to the social platform X, saying, “Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris has also been posting on X about the shutdown: “President Trump and Congressional Republicans just shut down the government because they refused to stop your health care costs from rising. Let me be clear: Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. This is their shutdown.”
With all the finger-pointing, it can be hard to break down where the blame lies, if there is blame at all. Throughout the whole process of passing this budget, Republicans have been hard pressed to budge on President Donald Trump’s proposal.
It would be a misstep to say that Democrats are solely to blame for the shutdown. The night before the shutdown House Democrats tried passing a stopgap — a bill that would give the government a temporary spending plan until the end of October to allow further deliberation on a new spending bill. The bill failed as republicans voted it down 57-47.
What’s happening right now in our government feels a lot like a toddler holding their breath because their mom won’t buy them the toy they wanted from the store. Republicans are holding their breath and threatening to run away because the Democrats won’t vote on a bill that cuts VA-benefits, Medicaid, SNAP programs and housing assistance.
I can’t even begin to imagine what families will be going through for the duration of the shutdown. Waking up in the morning to go to work and you won’t even receive your check at the end of the week. Rent and mortgage payments don’t stop just because the government does.
But what pains me more to imagine is the millions of Americans who will lose their healthcare, or someone’s grandma losing her Medicaid benefits, or my friends losing their homes because housing assistance was reduced or cut altogether.
I don’t think Democrats are sticking it to the man by not voting yes on the budget. I think they’ve been voting down this budget time after time because they’ve seen exactly what I’ve seen: How these programs impact real lives. It’s how hardworking people are waiting for their SNAP benefits to hit each month so they can provide food to their family because the average rent in the state of Connecticut is nearly $2,000.
This is not a matter of budgeting; this is a matter of human decency, and which party is willing to allow Americans like you and me to suffer for a little extra change in their pockets.
