This Shutdown Is About To Get SO Much Worse

Written By Leeja Miller

Sources:

Transcript:

Hi, welcome to Why, America? I’m Leeja Miller. Today is day 28 of the government shutdown in the United States. The USDA has announced that, starting Saturday, it will not be sending out SNAP benefits. Airports across the country are experiencing severe delays due to staffing shortages from the unpaid, overworked air traffic controllers calling in sick or otherwise not showing up to work. Today, civilian federal workers will miss their first full pay check, on Friday the military may or may not get paid, no one seems to really know. Also on Saturday, open enrollment starts for people who purchase health insurance through online marketplaces. Healthcare dot gov, which is where you get your insurance if your state doesn’t have its own marketplace and your employer doesn’t provide any, opened for “window shopping” on Tuesday. Insurance shoppers will see the double whammy of health insurance premiums increasing combined with the rolling back of ACA subsidies that could lead to insurance costs doubling for those on subsidized plans. It’s a shit show, y’all. Today we’re digging into the details and looking at the far ranging impacts that will be felt across the country by EVERYONE because of this ongoing shut down, plus who’s really to blame for all this pain?

AD

This headline from CNN caught my eye “Democratic-led states sue Trump administration to keep SNAP food assistance funds flowing” Using the Ground News browser extension, I can see that in the US CNN is considered “left leaning.” To get the big picture, I can click on Full Coverage, which will show me coverage of the same story from publications across the political spectrum.

My partner on today’s video, Ground News, uses 3 independent monitoring organizations to assess the bias rating for each publication. Each news monitoring organization has their own methodology - including editorial reviews, blind bias surveys, independent reviews, and third party research. These are legit INDEPENDENT organizations, but they are limited by the data available to them: their analysis is done in the context of the U.S. political system. Our overton window has shifted so far right that CNN is considered “left leaning.” That tells you a lot about the context within which the media you’re consuming operates. And thanks to Ground News, I get even more context, including how factual each publication is and who owns it, giving me a well-rounded idea of the motivations, biases, and accuracy of the news I’m consuming. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in America had that much information about the news they consume??

Because depending on where you or your family members get the news, you’re going to get very different takes on the same story.

This is where Ground News comes in - and why I've been using them for over a year. Today’s partner Ground News is an app and website that offers tools to help you critically analyze the news you read, providing context to understand the full picture. I feel better equipped to make sense of what’s happening in the world without being influenced by just one perspective. And listen I’m not the only one who loves Ground News, the Nobel Peace Center even called it "an excellent way to stay informed, avoid echo chambers, and expand your worldview.”

I’m always really impressed with Ground News and genuinely think they’re a great resource. If you want to stay informed on US Politics and more Subscribe through this QR code or my link below at ground dot news slash leeja for 40% off this unlimited access Vantage Plan. It comes out to $5 a month for unlimited access to ALL the features I’ve mentioned. Thanks Ground News!

First, to airports across the country that are experiencing delays as air traffic controllers who are already overworked and understaffed face increasing pressure from their peers calling in sick and also having to figure out how to live while missing out on their first full paycheck earlier this week. While hundreds of thousands of government workers are furloughed, those considered essential are forced to continue working without pay. This has led to major delays from Newark to LAX because these air traffic controllers are responsible for the safe coming and going of upwards of 50,000 flights per day, and if there simply aren’t enough people in the control rooms to keep eyes on all those flights, safety precautions require that flights be pushed back or cancelled so they can keep up with demand. As I always do, I’d like to just point out how this is one of the many ways Ronald Reagan ruined everything. Back in the 80s, a bunch of air traffic controllers held a strike, which was technically illegal because they’re federal employees, and instead of negotiating or trying to make their working conditions better, Reagan fired 11,300 air traffic controllers. For reference, there are currently 14,000 certified controllers. Total. In the country. And Reagan fired 11,000. That, combined with his aggressive budget cuts kicked off staffing shortages and budget restrictions at the FAA for nearly half a century. And yes we’re still dealing with the fallout today. Our air traffic controllers must work usually 6 days per week, 10 hours per day, under very intense conditions. If they have mental health issues as a result of the work, they can’t really talk about it, because having a mental health condition could lead to them losing their jobs. And they are paid relatively well, but have very little time outside of work to enjoy that pay. And now they’re not even getting that. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really thrilled about an exhausted, overworked, and now UNPAID person directing my plane, ya know? It’s deeply concerning, and of course transportation secretary Sean Duffy, which just as a reminder back in the 90s Sean Duffy was a professional lumberjack before joining the 1997 cast of The Real World Boston. He then became a lawyer and was elected to the Wisconsin state house of representatives. He left Congress in 2019 because of health concerns with his NINTH CHILD. He has nine children. He then went on to do a stint at Fox News, naturally, before being named Secretary of Transportation. He blamed the January 29th crash at the Reagan International Airport on DEI hiring practices with the FAA. That’s who’s in charge of our skies. Anyway he’s using this as an opportunity to push the propaganda that it is the Democrats voting over and over not to pay air traffic controllers, pure and simple. As we’ll get into in a minute, it’s of course not that simple. It was the delays at airports due to air traffic controller shortages that helped lead to the end of the last government shutdown during Trump’s first term, which ended after 35 days, the longest in US history. It is likely Duffy’s and the administration’s aim is to really lean into the “poor air traffic controllers” sentiment as a means of attempting to drive home the idea that it is the Democrat’s fault, hoping to force Democrats’ hand to end the shutdown. So far, at least, that doesn’t appear to be working.

And you’ll see that’s a theme through all of this, Democrats and Republicans alike using the pain of everyday people as propaganda and bargaining chips. That’s also happening with military pay. Back on the 15th, when troops were about to miss a paycheck for the first time, Trump ordered that an $8 billion dollar department of defense fund meant for research and development be used to instead pay the troops. That, for the record, was likely an illegal use of funds in violation of the Antideficiency Act, which bars the president from using money in a way that was not appropriated by Congress. That likely doesn’t matter because who the fucks gonna sue over this? The zone is flooded. Trump has violated so many laws it’s a pick your battles moment here and this doesn’t appear to be a battle anyone wants to pick, least of all our Congress which has absolutely abandoned its duty to be a check on the power of the president. Instead, Republicans in Congress and some Democrats seem incredibly willing to sit back, collect a paycheck that WE are paying for, and let Trump run roughshod over any semblance of checks and balances left. To say this Congress is filled with weak little weanies is a dramatic understatement. And that $8 billion dollars was only enough to cover one missed paycheck, which costs 6 to 7 billion dollars. So it’s unclear where they’re planning on getting the money to pay them again at the end of the week, which JD Vance has claimed they will but many leaders have admitted there’s uncertainty over how that would actually work. Trump has issued a directive to the Pentagon to pay troops using non-personnel appropriations, another move that is in violation of the antideficiency act.

Then there was the private donation to help pay the troops from a man named Timothy Mellon. He donated $130 million dollars to go towards troop pay. Reminder each paycheck costs around 6 billion dollars so the 130 million is truly meaningless when it comes to actually getting the troops paid, but of course it is being played up as a major show of support. Accepting that donation, however small in comparison to the need, was also likely against the law, as any private individual donation must be approved by Congress before it can be accepted.

Timothy Mellon is a billionaire recluse, heir to the rail and banking fortune, who until Trump wasn’t particularly active in politics but has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump and Health Secretary RFK Jr. It’s unclear what Mellon stands to gain from this donation, which he initially made anonymously until the New York Times revealed his identity. Much like the private donations likely being illegally accepted to fund the White House ballroom slash bunker in the east wing, the donation is shrouded in secrecy and the true motivations of the donors aren’t entirely apparent, other than paying tribute to Dear Leader in order to stay on his good side, and it could be as simple as that. Remember when the 1% built libraries and shit? They built libraries and shit while also having historically high income taxes weird it's almost like taxes don’t scare billionaires away at all. It’s almost like they’re willing to pay higher taxes for the benefit of getting to function in the United States which has, until recently, had a pretty sterling reputation in its institutions, infrastructure, markets, and more, such that any tax is worth it to be able to live and operate here. But instead we give billionaires massive tax breaks so then instead of paying taxes for the government to appropriate as needed, they get to throw $130 million dollars at “paying the troops” or “ballroom.”

But there are two important points to remember about this troop pay workaround, private donation, and likely future ways that the administration will attempt to pay the troops despite a lack of Congressional appropriation to do so. For one thing, this shutdown is giving Trump and the goons running the show like Office of Management and Budget director Russ Vought, who I’ve made a whole episode about already, it’s giving them the opportunity to fund a barebones government willy nilly. They are being allowed, by Congress, to say well we need to fund the troops, so let’s do that, but let’s not fund SNAP, which we’ll get into, or any other “Democrat program” as Trump calls them. And Congress is coming in with the assist, attempting to pass bills that would pay only “essential” workers during the shutdown, giving Republicans and, really, Trump’s goons, the say as to who is “essential” and deserves pay and which programs they’re willing to starve out. Or, in the case of the House, they have fully abandoned their jobs, continue to collect their own paychecks, and haven’t shown up to work in a month and a half, despite attempts to introduce and pass legislation that would pay the troops.

And this is Russ Vought’s wet dream–he wants to make federal workers’ lives living hell, he wants a skeleton government with as much power as possible consolidated into the hands of the president, and that’s exactly what he’s getting. And that goes hand in hand with the second point, and that is that by allowing Trump, Vought, whoever, the Executive Branch to choose which funds to spend despite what Congress has appropriated them for, not only is that a violation of the Antideficiency Act, it’s also a violation of like really very basic separations of powers written into the constitution meant to control against taxation without representation and the conglomeration of power into the hands of a king. The right to appropriate funds is very explicitly given to the House of Representatives because that is the body meant to most closely represent the will of the people. And so for Trump and his regime to say actually we’re going to use your tax dollars in a way that we want to, and then claim Trump’s actions are the true “will of the people” when they go against the will of the House of Representatives, and then the House through Mike Johnson just rolls over and plays dead, literally isn’t even showing up to work. That is authoritarianism in action. We do not have a house of representatives right now. But then Mike Johnson pretends like he’s in control. According to The Hill quote “Asked if Republicans have an alternative if the troops are not paid by Oct. 31, Johnson told reporters that Trump “only has so much latitude” in pulling funding from other areas as he did earlier this month.

“There’s only so many pots of money that he has the authority,” he told reporters. “He’s not a king, you know, he only has so much authority.”” Oh really, Mike Johnson?? Tell me exactly where that authority stops? Because according to laws passed by your own branch of government he actually did not have the authority to spend that money in the first place and you did nothing to stop it. Again, Johnson is using the shutdown as an excuse to blame Democrats for everything that’s happening, all the pain impacting the people in America, and claim his hands are tied, I guess we’ll see what happens I’m just a baby. Fuck that guy!! What a fucking coward.

But while this is all very serious, some of the most heartless, cowardly abrogation of duty is coming from response to the slashing of SNAP benefits and dramatic increases in healthcare costs.

This week, the USDA announced SNAP will not be issued starting Nov. 1. A banner on the USDA website says “Senate Democrats have now voted 12 times to not fund the food stamp program, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Bottom line, the well has run dry. At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats. They can continue to hold out for healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures or reopen the government so mothers, babies, and the most vulnerable among us can receive critical nutrition assistance.” The US Department of Agriculture, you know, the agency meant to be nonpartisan because why the fuck would the Department of Agriculture need to be spreading propaganda?? Well, for the Trump regime nothing is off limits. So now we have the USDA weighing in on gender affirming surgeries, apparently.

Meanwhile, starting on Saturday, over 40 MILLION Americans, members of my own family, probably you or your family members too, they will no longer receive the food benefits they need to be able to literally feed themselves and their children. Even if you don’t receive food stamps, this will impact you. Because the money from food stamps goes from families to the grocery providers, to the farmers and producers, and onwards throughout an economy already reeling from the shutdown, from tariffs, and from the general chaos and uncertainty being sowed by this regime. It will have long term impacts on child hunger, on the trauma that comes from experiencing hunger and poverty, especially in childhood, we truly cannot even begin to fathom the long term impacts from even a month or two of uncertainty for millions of Americans, including millions of children. And this is where the cruelty becomes particularly stark. Because remember how I said the Trump regime went over the head of Congress, against fundamental principles of checks and balances, against the antideficiency law, with impunity, without giving two fucks, in order to fund the military. Well there is an existing pot of money, a SNAP contingency fund, that could help to extend coverage for millions of Americans. And the Trump regime, through the USDA, is claiming that their hands are tied and they do not have the power to use that money. And the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying “Democrats chose to shut down the government knowing full well that SNAP would soon run out of funds. It doesn’t have to be this way, and it’s sad they are using the families who rely on it as pawns.”

And yesterday, governors and attorneys general from 25 states and Washington DC sued the federal government over the issue, saying they cannot illegally refuse to spend funds that have actually literally been appropriated as a contingency to cover SNAP benefits in a situation like this. According to CNN, quote “Congress approved $6 billion for a “SNAP-specific contingency fund” in the spending bill that averted a shutdown in March, the lawsuit notes. The lawsuit also points out that, as recently as September, the USDA website identified these funds as part of its plan to keep the food stamp payments flowing in case of a government shutdown.” But now the Trump regime is intent on cutting “Democrat” programs, meaning anything that helps everyday Americans, outside of the military, to make ends meet in a country that exclusively runs for the benefit of billionaires. Now, it falls on the states to fund the gap where SNAP benefits have run dry. Some are doing just that. Here in Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz announced the state will be putting $4 million dollars towards funding for food shelves here. Those food shelves are expected to see a dramatic influx of families who can no longer rely on their SNAP benefits, in addition to the influx from government workers who are furloughed. That $4 million dollars will only go so far, especially as this government shut down continues. I have donated to Second Harvest Heartland, a local Minnesota food distribution nonprofit that is able to take monetary donations and make them stretch further by buying wholesale and bulk food and then distributing them to food pantries throughout the state. And you should help in whatever way you can too, whether that’s donating food, money, or time to your local food shelter. But at the same time it’s important to point out how fucking stupid it is that billionairs pay a fraction of the proportion of their income on taxes that I pay, get to skip off into the sunset with absolutely unconscionable tax breaks, and then I have to use my taxed money to make up for a shortcoming that the government should be able to cover in the richest country in the world. It’s fucking infuriating and we should all be mad whether or not we’re losing food benefits next month. It’s cruel and it’s inhumane, there should be more money to fund this and the contingency funds we DO have are being held hostage by a regime intent on quite literally starving out the poorest most vulnerable among us, including in their own states that voted them in.

And there are many other people and families who may not feel the direct impact of the SNAP benefit cuts but who will feel the impact of increased healthcare costs. For the section of the population that is high enough income to not qualify for state or federal healthcare dollars but whose jobs don’t provide them with health insurance benefits, they are about to experience a dramatic increase in healthcare costs. And the increase is twofold. First, it is being reported that insurance companies themselves will be raising costs by 26% on average. That means just the base cost of your monthly premium from whatever you know “silver” plan you purchase on the marketplace that’s a step above the worst option but still a shit option, yeah the base cost is going to go up by 26% on average. Insurance companies claim they need to raise the costs because of increasing hospital costs, “expensive” Glp-1 drugs like Ozempic becoming so popular, and the increase prices because of tariffs. Additionally, the threat of Affordable Care Act subsidies going away means that healthier people will forego insurance altogether, meaning only the more expensive people to insure will continue to have plans, so in anticipation of that the insurance companies are also raising their prices.

But out of the 24 million Americans who get their health insurance through the healthcare marketplace, 22 million of them get some sort of subsidy from the federal government through the Affordable Care Act which yes is the same thing as Obamacare. Those 22 million Americans who typically don’t have to pay the entirety of the cost of their monthly premiums thanks to subsidies from the government, well those subsidies are going away. That is what the Democrats are digging in their heels over–they’re saying we won’t pass any appropriations bill that doesn’t extend these ACA subsidies. But for right now no bill has been passed at all, including one to extend the subsidies, so as far as the healthcare marketplaces are concerned, on November 1st when open enrollment starts, there are no subsidies for 2026. So on top of the 26% increase in just the base cost, without those subsidies Americans will on average see an increase of 114%. Their cost will more than double. That’s for the silver plans, but if they decide to downgrade to the “bronze” plans, that could mean perhaps their monthly premiums go down but then their out of pocket deductible goes up to thousands and thousands of dollars before the plan even kicks in.

To give you a concrete example, as reported on by KFF, a 60 year old couple making $85,000 per year would see the cost of their premiums, JUST their premiums remember that’s just what you pay every month and doesn’t include deductibles or copays or anything JUST their monthly premiums would go up by over $22,600 per year. Whereas before they were paying 8.5% of their income towards healthcare insurance, they would now be paying 25%. A quarter of their income towards their health insurance. Reminder that a lot of people are paying 50% or more of their income towards their housing these days. The sliver left over for ever increasing grocery prices, let alone, you know, being able to live a life, is getting smaller and smaller. For many many people, this will make health insurance simply too expensive to have. They will not pay that much. And at least anecdotally it seems people are getting creative with their workarounds in the face of expiring subsidies. Which, as a reminder, this is open enrollment and we have no idea how long this shutdown will continue so 22 million Americans are just riding blind trying to figure out health insurance going into 2026. Some families are deciding to keep their dental and eye insurance, which tends to be much more affordable, and then opting for membership programs offered directly through medical organizations. These can also be called Direct Primary Care programs or Concierge Medicine. So you pay a monthly fee directly to your doctor’s office and then get major discounts on routine procedures and tests. And it turns out that paying out of pocket for some procedures is actually more affordable than paying through insurance. The price for insurance is jacked way up, insurance only covers a portion, and you’re left with the rest which, sometimes, can work out to be more than you would have been charged had you just paid out of pocket. The reality is that this experience will send many families down a rabbit hole of discovering how much of a fucking racket the entire healthcare insurance industry is in this country. But some of these families are the same ones losing food assistance benefits or jobs and who maybe don’t have the capacity to do research to figure out what works for them and what might be a more affordable option. And so they may forego insurance altogether and avoid seeking medical care when they need it.

This, much like the cut to food benefits, will have large scale impacts that last long after the government shutdown ends. It will stack more medical debt onto the backs of everyday Americans who were already drowning in it. It will lead to foregone medical treatment that will require more invasive, drastic, and expensive procedures in the future to deal with. It impacts the already strapped hospitals who will go without bills being paid. The impacts are devastating for MILLIONS of Americans, and they’re about to get SO much worse. And meanwhile, our leaders in Washington are literally taking a vacation or playing the blame game and pointing fingers, on both sides of the aisle, and using the machinery of the state to pump out propaganda to try to convince us that there is one party to blame for all of this, betting that we’re all just fucking stupid enough to be convinced one way or another.

And while polling shows that generally speaking people tend to blame the Republicans a bit more for the shutdown because, you know, they run the entire government and Democrats have made it painfully obvious over the last 10 months that they have zero power, the reality is that this might all spectacularly backfire on all of them. Because while they’re at their podiums playing the blame game, real people are being impacted by their political games, MILLIONS and MILLIONS of real people are directly experiencing the impacts of Congress literally refusing to do their jobs and then treating us like we’re a bunch of idiot swine just waiting to be told who to blame. This level of pain and discomfort might just be enough to radicalize a few million of those Americans into realizing that the entire fucking game is rigged. That we can hem and haw and dissect whether it was a good idea for Democrats to dig in their heels over the ACA subsidies, whether the Republicans should go nuclear, get rid of the filibuster, and push this through on a bare majority, which political call is the “right” one and which one was political suicide and on and on and round and round playing this game of politics OR we can take a fucking step back and see the whole system for what it is.

Because what’s happening is we have this body of lawmakers, a body of people which is disproportionately wealthy compared to the American people. The median net worth of a congress member is 1.1 million dollars. That’s 12 times higher than the net wealth of the median US household. The average CEO is paid 285 times more than their average worker. The top 10% own NINETY PERCENT of ALL the wealth in the US stock market. Let me say that again the top 10% own NINETY PERCENT of ALL the wealth in the US stock market. Which, logically, means that the bottom 90% of Americans have access to only 10% of the wealth in the stock market. At almost no other time in US history have we seen such a huge chasm between the lives of the wealthy compared to the lives of the rest of us. The 800 or so billionaires in this country are so untethered to reality, to laws, to humanity, and our government has done nothing, absolutely fucking nothing, to stop them. Instead, our politicians are cashing in. Not by taxing a fair percentage of their income to pay for the infrastructure and labor they exploit. No no. By rubbing elbows with them, making friends with them, exchanging money for political power, and then being at their beck and call. The revolving door in Washington isn’t just between lobbying firms and Congress anymore, it’s also between the billionaire class and government at large. Trump’s cabinet is filled with the top 1%. People are being given government positions because they donate money. And now they don’t even need the government positions they can just throw millions at a ballroom slash bunker and parade in and out of the White House largely at will to conference with the leader of the “free world” whenever they want.

Especially since Citizens United, our Congress does not work for us, the people. Trump didn’t bring this about, this was happening long before he came into office. Studies have shown that the will of the people literally has zero impact on whether or not legislation gets passed. Whether or not people approve of a bill, it’s chances of passing around about 30%. But when you control for wealth, when the top 10% or top 1% don’t want a bill to pass, they have the power to block its passage completely, through lobbying and campaign finance that controls who runs and who gets elected. So no matter what either party does, whether Democrat or Republican, to pass or not pass an appropriations bill that includes or doesn’t include healthcare subsidies, the will of the people will play zero role in that decision. It doesn’t matter how many millions of children have to go hungry or how many millions will forego life saving medical care and suffer horrific consequences. The scale of the suffering doesn’t matter. Because it is truly only the will of the top 1% that has any sway over the functioning of our government, no matter the political party in charge. And more and more people are waking up to that fact, because we’re getting uncomfortable enough to give a shit and to get really fucking angry. Congress, people like Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffires and Chuck Schumer playing chicken with our lives, they don’t think they have to give a shit, because they don’t ultimately answer to us, they answer to the top 1%. That’s who pays for them to get re-elected. That’s who pays for their fancy fundraising dinners and the smear campaigns against their running mates and the propaganda that props them up. The rest of us do not matter to them. Not only do they not give two shits about us, they are increasingly hostile towards us, on both sides of the aisle. They cannot be bothered with our antics, with our cute little protests, with our needs and wants and demands, it’s all very inconvenient and annoying to them. We don’t know anything, they and their billionaire donors know better, so just shut up and get back to work like a good little drone. It’s insulting, it’s condescending, and it goes against the central ethos of a democratic country, one we’re supposed to have, at least in theory, though of course the founders did everything they could to exclude anyone who wasn’t a male, white, land-owning elite, so some may argue that it is running exactly as planned. Which is why I am staunchly NOT an originalist. Because the constitution was a starting document that the founders explicitly gave us a process for changing. And they’re all dead and buried, this is OUR country now, and we don’t have to say ah well this is what the founders wanted so I guess this is it, this is what we’re getting. We get to make this country into what we want it to be. Democracy gets its power from the consent of the governed and that is not what is happening in this country. And the more people who recognize that, especially as their living conditions become more and more precarious, the angrier they will get. And building something better will be the work of our lifetimes.

In the immediate term, there is an immediate and increasingly dire need for food across the country in the face of SNAP cuts. Please consider donating your time, money, or food to your local food shelf, just Google it there’s so many places that are in need. Additionally, there are organizations like Undue Medical Debt that will buy medical debt from debt collectors for pennies on the dollar, using your donations, and then outright cancel that debt. They’ve been able to wipe out over $6 billion dollars in medical debt that way. It’s not a permanent fix, and we need to also be working on finding solutions to the problems with the system that have led to this mess, but these are ways to provide emergency assistance so that the people who are angry who are being hurt by this system can land on their feet and hopefully use their experiences to push for something better.

And if you’d like to support my work, consider joining here on YouTube by clicking the big join button below, or supporting me over on Patreon, patreon dot com slash Leeja miller, where you get access to all these episodes completely ad free. Thank you to my multi-platinum patrons Marc, Sarah Shelby, Art, David, L’etranger (Lukus), Thomas Johnson, and Tay. Your generosity makes this channel what it is, so thank you!

And if you liked this episode, you’ll like the one from Monday about whether progressive politicians can save us all.

Leeja Miller
Next

Can Progressive Politicians Save Us?