WASHINGTON: The US government shutdown barrelled towards its second month Friday and the pain is spreading fast – with federal workers broke, food aid under threat and millions of Americans caught in the crossfire.
What started on October 1 as a Washington sideshow has morphed into a slow-motion implosion of public services and a growing economic convulsion, with federal offices dark and President Donald Trump’s government stuck in neutral.
Republicans have warned that millions will begin feeling the full force of the shutdown for the first time this weekend, as unresolved fights over funding for health care and food stamps make them hungrier and poorer.
“Most people haven’t noticed up until this week. Thanks to Donald Trump finding a way to pay our troops last month, that pain was delayed,” Republican House Whip Tom Emmer told Fox News. “But, starting this week... this is starting to become very real.”
At the heart of the fight is the expiry of insurance subsidies that make health care affordable for more than 20 million people. Premiums are expected to skyrocket when the new sign-up period opens Saturday.
Democrats refuse to reopen the government without a deal to extend the subsidies but Trump’s Republicans say they won’t talk until the lights are back on.
As Washington bickers, the shutdown is starting to pinch where it really hurts – the dinner table.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps 42 million low-income Americans buy groceries, is set to run out of funds this weekend.
A federal judge in Rhode Island gave the program a temporary reprieve, ordering the White House on Friday to use emergency funds to pay for food stamps during the shutdown, in a case brought by charities and other groups.
But the administration has been arguing that it cannot legally tap that fund, and it was not immediately clear, despite the ruling, that Americans would get their weekend SNAP payments.
CNN reported that it asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins if she would comply with a judge’s order to release the money and she responded: “We’re looking at all the options.”
WIC – the food aid programme for pregnant women, new mothers and infants – is also on the brink, while “Head Start” programs that provide nutrition and family support to 65,000 infants could begin shuttering from Saturday.
With uncertainty over food stamps giving Americans heartburn, communities have begun banding together to help vulnerable neighbours.
Kerry Chausmer, 55, from Bethesda in Maryland, said she was buying groceries for two local families in need – at a personal cost likely to total at least US$200.
“I think that you can judge a culture by how they help the people that need it most... We’re failing, and I am honestly despondent and embarrassed to be an American,” she told AFP.
The administration says it has scraped together enough money to cover Friday’s payday for active-duty troops, but acknowledges that they could go unpaid by mid-November.
And US air travel was beginning to suffer badly, with New York area airports John F Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia all under restrictions due in part to reduced staffing at control towers.
A ground stop was in effect at JFK until mid-afternoon, with delays clocking in at 60 to 100 minutes. Delays above three hours were expected at Newark while some passengers were bracing to be held up by as much as five hours at LaGuardia.
Trump, whose shadow hangs over every Republican move, has largely stayed out of the shutdown fight, although lawmakers on both sides hope he’ll swoop in to broker a deal on the health care subsidies.
He repeated his pledge to sit down with Democrats over their demands – but only after the shutdown is over.
“We’ll meet very quickly, but they have to open up the country,” he told reporters. “It’s their fault. Everything is their fault. It’s so easily solved.”
