The shutdown enabled the Democrats to highlight the Republicans’ withdrawal of health coverage from millions of Americans, and Trump’s withholding food stamps—while he was praising himself for building a ballroom and rebuilding the Lincoln bathroom—only accelerated his descent in the polls.
federal government
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Despite Vow to Protect Health Care for Veterans, VA Losing Doctors and Nurses
Between December 2024 and August 2025, the VA reported a net loss of thousands of health care positions, and advocates report the impact of understaffing, facility closures, and waiting times has been ‘dire.’
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Meet RFK’s Corporate Underlings
The administration’s rhetoric about breaking corporate power in health care rings hollow, as several top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services worked for the very corporate interests their boss claims to oppose.
Posted inEconomic Policy
Fed Making Key Economic Decisions Without Key Economic Data
The Fed considers information from a variety of sources in setting monetary policy, everything from anecdotal reports to original data produced by its regional Reserve Banks. But the loss of public, and apparently some private, data is an acknowledged blow.
Posted inPolitics
After First Missed Paycheck, Federal Workers Call for Solidarity
With no end to the government shutdown in sight, federal workers are drawing down their savings accounts and retirement plans, and getting help from family members, food pantries, credit unions, and a variety of other sources.
Posted inPolitics
To Win the Shutdown, Democrats Need a Big Switch
Democrats have positioned the shutdown as about health care, which is very easy for Republicans to dismiss.
Posted inWorking in America
Breaking: Amazon Actually Employs Its Delivery Drivers
Even as Republicans claim majority support from working-class voters, the pattern of their furloughs during the current government shutdown makes clear that this support is in no way reciprocated. While almost all the employees at the Treasury Department are still on the job (albeit working without pay), a bare 17 of the 1,270 employees in the Labor […]
Posted inPolitics
Opening Parks During Shutdown Part of Plan to Ruin Them
Staying open with a skeleton crew makes parks dangerous for remaining staff, visitors, and ecosystems alike.
Posted inPolitics
The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ Phase of the Shutdown
These haphazard funding cuts and firings will only continue, because they are manifestly not tied to a shutdown
Posted inPolitics
The Real Problem With the Trump Shutdown
The reactionary Supreme Court has given him Congress’s power of the purse.