October 21, 2025 01:18 PM UTC

Government Shutdown Update: Things Are About to Get a Lot Worse

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

The first federal government shutdown since 2018 is now in its fourth week. There is still no apparent end in sight.

Here’s the latest in our weekly-ish shutdown updates, beginning with some staggering new poll numbers from The Associated Press:

About 6 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about their health costs going up in the next year, the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds — a worry that extends across age groups and includes people with and without health insurance. [Pols emphasis]

Many Americans have other health care anxieties, too. The poll found that about 4 in 10 Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about not being able to pay for health care or medications they need, not being able to access health care when they need it, or losing or not having health insurance…

…Medicare beneficiaries are already shopping for next year’s coverage, and open enrollment periods for many other health plans are approaching quickly in November. Federal policies have left millions of people at risk of skyrocketing health insurance premiums or of losing their health insurance altogether. The findings show that many Americans are feeling vulnerable to spiking health care costs, with some expressing concerns about whether they’ll have coverage at all.

You would think this sort of information would promote more urgency from the GOP, but maybe the answer is this…

Republicans Don’t Seem to Give a Shit

As The Associated Press reports:

Senate Republicans projected a unified front at the White House Rose Garden Tuesday, arriving at President Donald Trump’s invitation as they refuse to yield to Democratic demands for health care funds into the fourth week of the government shutdown.

While hosting, Trump praised the GOP leadership, singling out senators by name, trashed former President Joe Biden and previewed his own upcoming foreign travel and tariff policies.

“We’re a wealthy nation again,” he said.

The country, meanwhile, is feeling the financial hit of the shutdown, which is on track to become among the longest in U.S. history. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are going without pay, Head Start programs for preschoolers nationwide are scrambling for funds, and economists warn of curbed economic growth.

Wow. Just take your pick as to which of those many points above should be problematic for the GOP.

Congressional Republicans claim that they and President Trump will agree to talk about extending subsidies for Obamacare and potential Medicaid changes only after Democrats agree to support ending the shutdown. You’d have to be a real rube to believe that one; the only thing Donald Trump never wavers about is Diet Coke.

November 1: The Date Everything (Should) Change

There are hundreds of thousands of people who have already been negatively impacted by the Republican President Trump’s government shutdown. We aren’t in any way minimizing that pain, but shit gets REAL on November 1.

As CBS News reports, funding for SNAP benefits (food stamps) is about to run dry:

States are warning struggling Americans who rely on food stamps to pay for groceries that they may miss out on benefits come November.

“Starting October 16, SNAP  [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits will not be paid until the federal government shutdown ends and funds are released to PA,” reads a notice from the Pennsylvania state website.

New Jersey, Maryland, New York and Texas are among the other states that have issued similar notices.

The wave of announcements come after the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the federal food stamps program, issued a letter to state agencies on Oct. 10 saying that if the lapse in appropriations continues, there will be “insufficient funds” to pay full November SNAP benefits.

Reached for comment, the White House referred CBS News to the USDA, which then shared the letter it sent to states. Both declined to comment on what a lapse in funding could mean for the millions of Americans who rely on the program. Advocates, meanwhile, have warned the effects could be devastating. [Pols emphasis]

But the big shock that virtually all Americans are about to feel is when they officially start to see the massive increase to health insurance premiums. From KGOU in Oklahoma:

Open enrollment for Affordable Care Act health insurance begins in less than two weeks. But with the government shutdown continuing, government insurance costs are expected to rise significantly.

“Tens of millions of Americans are receiving notices as we speak indicating that their health insurance premiums, copays and deductibles are about to skyrocket, double, triple, or in some cases quadruple at levels that will be unaffordable,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on NPR’s Morning Edition Tuesday.

Those price hikes will impact the more than 24 million people enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Cynthia Cox, vice president at KFF, an independent health policy research, polling and news organization, said that the expiration of tax credits on Affordable Care Act marketplaces will cause these price increases.

“People are getting less financial help next year than they get this year,” Cox said. “When they log on to shop, they’re seeing much higher monthly premium costs for themselves.”

The Kaiser Family Foundation (er, KFF) estimates rates to rise by more than 100% when people start shopping for coverage on November 1. Warnings about rising health care costs will hit home differently when people are staring at the numbers themselves in the first week of November.

Republicans Can’t Win on Health Care

As POLITICO noted recently, “rational” Republicans understand that the Affordable Care Act isn’t going anywhere:

The ongoing debate over soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies has reopened an old wound for Republicans: What should they do about the health care law they have railed against for more than a decade but has now taken root with their own constituents?

While some GOP hard-liners are again embracing repeal-and-replace rhetoric, the scars from the party’s failed attempt to undo the ACA in 2017 have left a broader swath of Republicans extremely wary of trying to rip out the law — even as they continue to criticize it.

The ongoing debate over soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies has reopened an old wound for Republicans: What should they do about the health care law they have railed against for more than a decade but has now taken root with their own constituents?

While some GOP hard-liners are again embracing repeal-and-replace rhetoric, the scars from the party’s failed attempt to undo the ACA in 2017 have left a broader swath of Republicans extremely wary of trying to rip out the law — even as they continue to criticize it.

dfgdf

More Pain Coming for Federal Employees in Colorado

As Colorado Public Radio reports:

As the government shutdown goes into its fourth week, court documents show almost 200 Colorado-based positions that the Interior Department wants to cut.

Earlier this month, the Trump Administration issued layoffs to about 4,000 federal workers in at least seven agencies, in an attempt to further slash the size of the federal government. The so-called reduction in force is currently paused; a judge issued a temporary restraining order after two unions that represent federal workers filed suit.

Republicans Keep Playing Same Tune

Republicans seem convinced that they can get people to believe that a government shutdown under a Republican Congress and a Republican President is somehow the fault of Democrats. Polling does not support this idea, but the GOP keeps on keeping on:

This is a good point to remind you that the House of Representatives hasn’t been in session for one day this month. Speaker Mike Johnson has kept everyone on recess because the GOP has no good answers for Democratic questions. Johnson is also trying to forestall the inevitable discharge petition discussion about releasing the Epstein Files.

In other words, Colorado Democrats can’t vote on anything. Literally.