Government Shutdown Hits Nation As Blame Game Between Dems And GOP Goes Into Hyperdrive

The U.S. government has shut down after the Senate failed to pass a last-minute funding plan on Tuesday.

Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other for the shutdown, which is the first since 2018, and will see some federal services paused and thousands of workers furloughed.

It comes after both parties failed to pass plans that would continue to fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown.

Republicans did not secure enough support to advance their short-term funding proposal that would have kept the government running until November 21.

They needed 60 votes to pass the stopgap in the Senate, but the GOP has 53 members and only three Democrats agreed to vote for the bill.

Democrats also failed to push through a spending bill, which included extending health-care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and reversing Medicaid cuts.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that around 750,000 federal workers will be furloughed, costing the U.S. roughly $400 million per day.

The number of furloughed employees could vary daily, as some agencies may furlough more employees the longer a shutdown continues, while others might recall employees who were initially sent home.

Homeland Security is expected to retain most of its staff, with Secretary Kristi Noem saying 200,000 will go without pay, while CBS News reported that 334,904 civilian staff at the Department of War will be furloughed.

The Department of Health is expected to furlough 32,460 people, the Department of Commerce 34,711, the Department of State 16,651 and NASA 15,094.

Russ Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, also directed federal agencies to consider using the shutdown to carry out mass firings of the federal workforce in a memo.

Active-duty military personnel will be required to work without pay until after the shutdown is resolved, and they will be reimbursed.

Pay for Congress members is considered mandatory as per the Constitution, meaning they will be paid throughout the shutdown.

The Senate is expected to meet on Wednesday for another vote. But Democrats are refusing to give the Republicans the numbers they need, and Republicans say they won’t negotiate over Medicaid cuts and health-care tax credits.

After meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday to discuss the impending shutdown, President Donald Trump threatened “irreversible” actions.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told reporters.

Trump has also come under fire for digitally altered Truth Social posts of Jeffries and Schumer that have been widely described as racist.

In an AI-generated clip, Jeffries is wearing a sombrero and has a handlebar mustache, while the fake Schumer claims that Democrats are giving illegal immigrants who can’t speak English free health care because they need new voters.

In a joint statement after the shutdown, Schumer and Jeffries said, “After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people.”

“Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican health-care crisis. But we need a credible partner.

“Over the last few days, President Trump’s behavior has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos. The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown.”

In a post on X, Schumer also referred to claims made by the Trump administration that Democrats were giving illegal immigrants free health care.

“This is a lie. Not a single federal dollar goes to providing health insurance for undocumented immigrants. NOT. ONE. PENNY,” Schumer said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Democrats for the shutdown in an interview with CNN after the failed vote.

“What they’ve decided to do tonight with their vote is to close the government and what that means, everybody needs to understand, real pain for real Americans,” he said.

“It means women, infants, and children do not get their nutrition programs, that is not funded anymore. Veterans don’t get their health-care services. Suicide prevention and other very important things that are very timely.

“You have low income persons who are Medicaid, Medicare recipients who are receiving care at home, those programs are now lapsed, they will not be funded.”

“The only question tonight is: How long will Chuck Schumer keep the government closed? It’s a dangerous gambit,” Johnson added.

It is understood that both the Medicaid and Medicare programs will continue to run, though there may be staffing shortages. However, food assistance programs will be impacted.

The White House has launched a government shutdown clock, which has a timer above a headline reading, “Democrats have shut down the government.”

A red banner is also featured at the top of the webpage, reading, “Democrats in their own words,” with the link redirecting to a video page.

On the page, footage is continuously playing, showing previous comments that Democrats have made about how government shutdowns are bad.