The Impact of the Government Shutdown

By: Stella Bovender

On Oct. 1, the federal government shutdown due to Congress failing to pass a budget for 2026. According to BBC’s Oct. 2025 article with Anthony Zurcher and James Fitzgerald, “Why the US government has shutdown and what happens now”, the main reason the government shutdown is because Democrats oppose cuts made to Medicaid and want to “make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans.” According to Zurcher and Fitzgerald, even though Republicans have the majority in the House and Senate, they are short of the 60 votes needed to pass the budget, giving Democrats negotiating power.

Since the beginning of the shutdown, politicians and the public have argued over who is to blame. In a recent The Economist/YouGov poll taken in mid-October, more Americans place blame on President Trump and Republicans than Democrats, but compared to previous polls, citizens are starting to equally blame all three. Politicians themselves, however, are continuing to place blame on their adversaries. The official White House website has a timer representing the length of the shutdown with a sentence at the bottom saying, “Democrats Have Shut Down The Government.” According to AP News’s Oct. 2025 article with Mary Clare Jalonick and Stephen Groves titled “Democrats say they won’t be intimidated by Trump’s threats as the shutdown enters a third week,” Tim Kaine, a Senator from Virginia, says that the shutdown was caused by President Trump’s “punitive behavior” since his inauguration. 

The impact of the shutdown is starting to affect everyday people. Many federal workers have been placed on leave and are not being paid, and, according to CNBC’s Oct. 2025 article with Dan Mangan and Emily Wilkins titled “Trump says ‘a lot’ of federal workers are being laid off during government shutdown”, some federal workers are anticipating being laid off by the Trump administration in “permanent job cuts, formally known as ‘Reductions in Force’.” However, according to CNBC’s Oct. 2025 article with Dan Mangan titled “Judge blocks Trump from firing federal workers during government shutdown for now”, a federal judge has stepped in and blocked the Trump administration from furthering reductions-in-force.  According to a White House report published in Oct. 2025, if the shutdown continues for an indefinite period of time, the economy will lose approximately $15 billion per week during the shutdown. The report goes on to explain that certain benefit programs, such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which supports around 7 million women and children, will run out of funds at the end of the month. Small businesses will likely also be impacted because they will “encounter delays in receiving federal loans.” It is clear, the longer the shutdown lasts, the more the U.S. loses.