Free Republic

After the 2013 government shutdown ended, Republican leaders made clear they had only been humoring Sen. Ted Cruz and his plot to defund Obamacare. “It was not a smart play. It had no chance of success,” then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. Then-House Speaker John Boehner initially said the GOP had “fought the good fight.” But he would later say the plan “never had a chance” and even called the Texas senator “Lucifer in the flesh.” This is how shutdowns generally go. The side seeking a concession fights what they view as “the good fight,” and then they...

PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has signed a disaster declaration over SNAP funding, which is in danger of being cut off on Saturday due to the federal government shutdown. What the declaration does The declaration makes $5 million in state money immediately available to food banks. Shapiro made the announcement at a Friday afternoon news conference in Philadelphia. You can watch his complete remarks in the video player above. "Nearly two million Pennsylvanians rely on SNAP every month — and they shouldn’t have to wonder where their next meal will come from because of the dysfunction in Washington," Shapiro...

More controllers are now calling in sick and some are working second jobs to make ends meet, according to union officials.As air traffic controllers miss their first full paycheck, more are calling in sick and some are working second jobs to make ends meet, according to union officials. (Scripps News) Air traffic controllers are missing their first full paycheck on Tuesday due to the government shutdown.The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents those workers, is sharing the stories of those workers in an effort to push lawmakers to reopen the government.The president of the union says the added stress...

9mmSMG @9mm_smg This woman is threatening to eat us if EBT goes down.

Several pilot unions and associations have issued statements calling for the passage of a clean continuing resolution (CR) in order to reopen the government and end the ongoing shutdown. Unions such as the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, the Allied Pilots Association (APA), and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA), have issued statements calling upon lawmakers to support a clean CR, which Democrats have continued to oppose, according to USA Today. The statements from the unions come as roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers are currently working without being paid during the ongoing...

Even as congressional Democrats hang tough on their demands for an Obamacare subsidy extension deal before they’ll agree to a reopening of the federal government, one of their most conspicuous allies in this standoff, the American Federation of Government Employees, has asked them to call it all off. AFGE is the largest federal employee union, representing approximately 820,000 workers across many agencies. This is not the first time AFGE has called for an end to the government shutdown, but it is the first time the union has backed the approved GOP avenue for getting out of the mess: a “clean...

One aspect of the government shutdown that probably wasn’t anticipated by Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, is that it has revealed to the public just how many people receive food stamps. Years ago, when the program was still called ‘food stamps’ it was seen as something that struggling families might use temporarily to get through a hard time. Then it was re-branded as the ‘SNAP’ program and destigmatized. People were encouraged to enroll. Now there are many more people using the program, many who probably don’t even really need it. The longer the shutdown goes on, the more reports there...

WASHINGTON — The country’s largest union representing federal workers is calling for lawmakers to pass a short-term spending measure to immediately end the government shutdown, urging Democrats to abandon their current position and join Republicans in supporting a stopgap solution. “Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley wrote in a statement first shared with NBC News. “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.” The statement could increase pressure on Democrats to...

Gaslighting has become a science for Democrats during the current government shutdown. After years of flirting with falsehoods, they have turned into full-blown, bald-faced liars as they attempt to pin the carnage that is coming on Republicans because they “control” the House, Senate, and White House. Tarlov is not alone. Senator Mazie Hirono took to X on Monday to peddle the tired Democratic narrative that Republicans are to blame for the ongoing government shutdown. “Friendly reminder that Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House. This shutdown is entirely their fault,” Hirono posted, racking up thousands of likes...

Flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility, the Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday, when the agency also reported staffing-related delays in Chicago, Washington and Newark, New Jersey. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed and canceled in the coming days as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. During an appearance on the Fox News program “Sunday...

The White House is warning 42 million low-income Americans will start to miss SNAP benefits Saturday if Democrats don’t vote for the funding stopgap this week.Speaker Mike Johnson is siding with the Trump administration’s decision not to tap emergency funds to avert a lapse in food aid for 42 million Americans. “I got a summary of the whole legal analysis, and it certainly looks legitimate to me,” Johnson said during a news conference Monday. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is due to run out of money Nov. 1 amid the government shutdown. President Donald Trump suggested Friday night...

Federal immigration authorities say they no longer have to provide on-demand access to detention facilities for members of Congress. The reason? The government shutdown.Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have been fighting a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers over prior denied visit attempts,have informed lawmakers that they simply don’t have the staff or funding to support those visits. Lawmakers have previously been legally allowed to demand them as part of their oversight duties, which includes monitoring conditions and communicating with detainees facing deportation.And in court, ICE has added another explanation: As a result of the shutdown, there’s now no law...

WASHINGTON — The largest union for federal workers urged Congress on Monday to pass a “clean” funding bill to end the government shutdown, undercutting Democrats who are demanding that any deal include subsidies for people who get their insurance through the Affordable Care Act.The move by the American Federation of Government Employees, which is typically a Democratic ally, underscores the difficult spot federal unions find themselves in. Nearly four weeks into the shutdown, hundreds of thousands of workers are furloughed and missing paychecks, while some face the possibility of further layoffs by the Trump administration. Everett Kelly, AFGE’s president, said...

As the federal government shutdown continues, millions of Americans may not receive their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in November, but DoorDash is stepping in to help. The delivery platform announced the launch of its Emergency Food Response. DoorDash also plans to waive delivery and service fees for an estimated 300,000 grocery orders placed by SNAP recipients through its app. Participating grocers include Sprouts, Dollar General, Schnucks, Ahold Delhaize brands, Hy-Vee, Giant Eagle and Wegmans. The company said customers with a SNAP/EBT card linked to their DoorDash account will be eligible for one fee-free grocery delivery during November. “No one...

It looks like CNBC Squawk Box co-anchor Becky Quick is fed up with the Democrats’ hypocritical nonsense over the ongoing government shutdown. Quick skewered House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) during the October 24 edition of Squawk Box. Quick scolded him over Obamacare subsidies: “What you’re asking the Republicans to do right now when they control the White House, the Senate and the House is effectively what the Democrats could not do when they controlled all three heads of government themselves,” The CNBC personality continued, with Jeffries just staring stone-faced: “The three-year set up for the expiration of these credits...

The government shutdown gets uglier at the end of this week. With President Donald Trump traveling abroad and Congress still deeply divided over a path to fund federal agencies, a pileup of deadlines on and around Nov. 1 is set to put many U.S. households at risk of new hardship: Popular programs that provide nutrition assistance, early childhood education and air service to rural communities are now among those about to run out of money. Thousands of federal employees will also miss their first full paychecks this week, so services like TSA screenings and air traffic control operations could be...

It’s Past Time to End This Shutdown This week, Congress pushed our nation into the fourth week of a full government shutdown – an avoidable crisis that is harming families, communities, and the very institutions that hold our country together.As president of the American Federation of Government Employees, I represent over 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers...The Army nurse in San Antonio, the TSA officer in Atlanta, the USDA food safety inspector in Iowa, and hundreds of thousands more like them are being asked to keep our country running without the paychecks that keep their own households afloat.The path forward...

So far, I wouldn’t have noticed Chuck Schumer’s government “shutdown” if it hadn’t been in the newspapers. The government is still withholding money from my paychecks, so the shutdown is obviously less than complete. I don’t depend on SNAP or other government programs, although I sympathize with those who do. But I do travel a lot, and the Schumer Shutdown is starting to affect air travel and, perhaps, air safety: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that flights to Los Angeles, California, were halted due to staffing shortages of air traffic controllers during the ongoing government shutdown, according to multiple...

The government shutdown has focused debate on the vast sum ($136 billion in 2025, as projected by the Congressional Budget Office) that the federal government spends to annually subsidize continually skyrocketing Obamacare health insurance premiums. The Wall Street Journal reports that regardless of how that fiscal tug-of- war turns out, health insurance premiums paid by Americans are expected to rise another 8% or 9% next year.The mega-health insurers are leading the charge for more subsidies because this money lands right in their pockets. Their profits and stock values have been soaring while the rest of us struggle to pay the...

The Schumer Shutdown is rolling on with no signs of any imminent deals, and some government benefit programs are starting to run out of funds. One such is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the food stamp program. It's about to run out of money, but Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) has introduced a bill to fund the program through the shutdown.The Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 would keep the food aid program funded during the government lapse until the Department of Agriculture is funded through regular appropriations or stopgap measures.The bill is the companion to a...