October 09, 2025 11:50 AM UTC

Government Shutdown Update: Republicans Revolt as Trump Administration Fumbles

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• by: Colorado Pols

The first federal government shutdown since 2018 will enter double digits by reaching Day 10 tomorrow, with no apparent end in sight.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t shutdown-related news to discuss. Here’s the latest in our weekly-ish shutdown updates, starting with the latest polling from Navigator Research:

Republicans Getting Hammered for Shutdown…By Republicans

We’ve written before in this space about the absurd Republican talking points claiming that Democrats are responsible for the shutdown because they want to give health care benefits to undocumented immigrants — a flat lie that has been debunked repeatedly by numerous news outlets. Polling has consistently shown that this isn’t working and that Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown. There’s a great example of this from a recent C-SPAN appearance by House Speaker Mike Johnson in which a Republican woman from a military family absolutely destroys Johnson for making a “show” out of something that is devastating to American families:

CALLER: As a Republican, I am very disappointed in my party, and I’m very disappointed in you because you do have the power to call the House back…you refuse to do that just for a show. I am begging you to pass this legislation. My kids could DIE. We don’t have the credit because of the medical bills that I have to pay regularly. You could stop this, and you could be the one to say the military is getting paid. And I think that it is awful — and the audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane.

It’s not just Republican voters who have soured on Congressional Republicans:

When you’ve lost Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene…

Health Care Takes Center Stage

Democrats have repeated a clear and simple message on the shutdown: They are not going to agree to re-open the government unless Republicans and President Trump agree to renew subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and roll back Medicaid cuts from the “big beautiful bullshit bill.” Democrats have been consistent with this message, and it’s taking hold.

There have been a lot of stories lately about the closure or pending closure of rural hospitals and health clinics, including this recent report from ABC News:

Across the country, hospitals are vanishing, and a new wave of Medicaid cuts could accelerate the collapse.

President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashes nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. The administration says this cuts wasteful spending and will create a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. But many health experts say that’s not nearly enough.

Already, nearly 100 rural hospitals have closed or eliminated inpatient services in the last decade, threatening health care access to some of the more than 16 million people living in rural communities who rely on Medicaid.

While the full impact of Medicaid cuts could take years to unfold, doctors say the system is already buckling. Many rural hospitals are already operating on razor-thin or negative margins, and they see these looming Medicaid changes could push them over the edge. [Pols emphasis]

Stories like this were inevitable after Republicans rammed through Trump’s budget bill in early July. If Republicans thought they could insulate themselves from criticism because they delayed many of the Medicaid cuts until after the 2026 election, they were fooling themselves.

Here’s another hit from Meg Wingerter of The Denver Post:

The federal community health center fund, which pays about $111 million annually to Colorado clinics to cover care for uninsured people, lapsed at the end of September, though centers can continue to draw down money as long as their grants last, said Ross Brooks, president and CEO of the Colorado Community Health Network.

Not all centers operate on the same cycle, so some might have six months left in their grants, while others only have one or two months, he said.

“I’m hopeful that the federal government’s going to come to a resolution on it,” he said. “If it goes more than two to three months, I think we’re in a pretty tough spot.”

A long shutdown could also jeopardize other programs supporting health centers, such as loan repayment for doctors working in underserved areas, Brooks said. The longest shutdown in history lasted 34 days, from December 2018 to January 2019.

Community health centers in Colorado run about 250 sites, which treated about 850,000 people in 2024.

Health Insurance Rate Hike Stories Are Everywhere

Democrats, and even some Republicans, have been warning about looming health insurance rate spikes if Affordable Care Act subsidies aren’t renewed soon. Open enrollment for 2026 begins on November 1, and without an agreement on extending subsidies, Americans are going to get a big sticker shock. As NPR reports, this is not a partisan issue for Republicans facing that deadline in their day jobs:

“The window is rapidly closing,” says Jon Godfread, North Dakota’s insurance commissioner. He says the enhanced subsidies need to be extended before open enrollment starts Nov. 1. “Let’s do this now.”

If lawmakers miss that deadline, he says, “it’s going to be really, really challenging to go back [to consumers] and say, ‘OK, now we fixed it, please come back and shop at this market that you were priced out of.’ I just don’t believe consumers are going to do that.”…

…Godfread insists this issue is not about partisan politics. He himself is an elected Republican, and he is also president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a membership organization of state insurance regulators across the country. “Red state, blue state, appointed, elected — we have unanimous approval supporting these tax credits,” he says. [Pols emphasis]

Nonpartisan health research organization KFF estimates that Americans will see premium increases of 114% without a deal on extending subsidies.

Shutdowns Don’t Fly (Literally)

Congress has faced pressure to end previous government shutdowns in part because of the impact on air travel. Americans are running into flight delays and cancellations because of how the shutdown impacts air traffic controllers. As The Associated Press reported on Wednesday, things will get worse before they get better:

Staffing shortages led to more flight delays at airports across the U.S. on Tuesday as the federal government shutdown stretched into a seventh day, while union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners warned the situation was likely to get worse.

The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing issues at airports in Nashville, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia, and at its air traffic control centers in Atlanta, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The agency temporarily slowed takeoffs of planes headed to the first three cities.

Flight disruptions a day earlier also were tied to insufficient staffing during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1. The FAA reported issues on Monday at the airports in Burbank, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Denver.

As NBC News reports, delays continued into Wednesday:

The staffing shortages began Monday, when air traffic controllers started working without pay because of the shutdown.

Within the last 48 hours, delays from a lack of air traffic controllers have also been reported at airports in Boston; Burbank, California; Chicago; Denver; Houston; Las Vegas; Nashville, Tennessee; Philadelphia; and Phoenix, according to the FAA.

The FAA reduces the number of flights in and out of airports when there are lower-than-ideal staffing levels to handle all the air traffic safely.

A Trump administration that leads only with threats and recriminations — remember that Trump threatened before the shutdown that he would implement mass layoffs of federal employees — is not handling this well. Via POLITICO:

“Problem children” air traffic controllers who call out sick as a way to protest the government shutdown could lose their jobs, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned Thursday.

“If we have some on our staff that aren’t dedicated, we’re going to let them go,” Duffy said on Fox Business on Thursday, in response to a question about back pay for controllers, who must work without pay during the government shutdown. “Again, I can’t have people not showing up to work.”

We can’t have people refusing to show up to jobs for which they aren’t being paid!

The employment threats will continue until morale improves.