The Republican-Driven Shutdown Actually Started In January.

If you had asked me about the possibility of a government shutdown in any other year, including the time I served in Congress, I would have said, “Don’t worry, there will be a magical compromise at the last minute. Just wait.” Because 90% of the time, there has always been a last-minute compromise to fund the government every year over the last one hundred years. Not this time. I knew it would happen. Because there is no negotiating with authoritarians. If it had been any other Republican administration, there would have been negotiations. Not with this one.

It was crystal clear from the moment the Republicans built a budget in February designed to eliminate healthcare for 17 million Americans and increase healthcare insurance costs by 50-100% for another 100 million people, they no longer wanted to create a government that partners with Americans and helps them succeed.

Let’s start at the beginning. There is widespread agreement across all Americans that there are some inefficiencies in various federal government agencies and departments. Everyone acknowledges that large organizations of every type, everywhere, often have inefficiencies. However, it’s a different matter entirely when authoritarians falsely accuse federal departments and workers of “fraud.”
“Fraud” was the accusation against dedicated public servants, highly competent professionals, active-duty military personnel, veterans, and workers across 400 federal agencies by the Trump administration and its core team. They used the fraud claim to justify dismantling the federal government and firing hundreds of thousands of people.

They were fired and departments shut down without proper analysis, study, or examination of each agency or department that was cut. Instead, there was just willy-nilly slashing of budgets and staff, with no logical or strategic reasoning.

Simply put, let’s stop pretending about when this shutdown was initiated. It began when the Trump administration started aggressively shutting down the government on January 22, 2025.

Key Trump administration cuts implemented in 2025 include:

Workforce and Personnel

• Mass layoffs and buyouts: approximately 300,000 layoffs and firings.
• Targeted firings:
  • Fired 17 independent Inspectors General shortly after taking office.
  • Dismissed members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and other commissions.
  • Fired the Director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Fired high-ranking military leaders and CDC officials who disagreed with administration directives.
  • Attempted to fire a governor of the FCC—pending.
• Targeting of DEI initiatives: Fully terminated all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and prohibited agencies from considering DEI factors in employment practices.

Major agency cuts and targeted programs

• Department of Education:Issued an executive order to begin winding down the entire department.
• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):Proposed a 51% budget cut, including demands to cut the Office of Community Planning and Development and the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):Laid off thousands of employees, including those at the FDA and CDC.
• U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID):Announced plans to dismantle the agency, leading to mass layoffs, and moved remaining international aid functions under the Department of State.Stopped all food aid to countries.
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):Rolled back numerous environmental protections and climate policies, including plans to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding that grounds greenhouse gas regulation.
• Student loan programs:Made significant cuts to Pell Grants, reduced funding for federal student aid programs, and moved to eliminate key relief programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Healthcare:

• Rolled back ACA patient protections, defunded outreach programs, stopped subsidies, and rescinded policies to lower drug costs.

Note: Some of these actions, especially those taken by executive order, have faced immediate legal challenges and are currently being litigated.

What Happens Next: What services will stop and what will continue?

Generally, all non-essential programs will shut down, while essential services remain operational.

• Social Security and Veterans’ benefits: will continue to be paid.
• The U.S. Postal Service is independent and funded through sales, not taxes, so it will operate, but delays are expected.
• Most banks will remain open.
• Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration workers are considered essential and will continue working, although sickouts may occur.
• Mothers and young children relying on the WIC and SNAP food programs will lose funding and see shutdowns within a very short time.
• Federal employees and active military members will stop receiving paychecks within a few weeks, affecting up to 2.92 million workers, directly or indirectly.
• FEMA will continue short-term but will run out of funding quickly.

Note: Some states will be more affected than others by federal funding cuts; check your state’s specifics. As the shutdown drags on beyond a week or two, some essential services may become endangered.
Important to note: The current president is also threatening to fire more people during the shutdown and implement other cuts in order to cause more pain.

Why Did The Republicans Decide to Shut Down The Government?

Because instead of cutting costs like competent adults with a full study and examination of how to best reduce expenditures without deeply hurting Americans and the economy, the Republicans simply slashed all budgets dramatically and did not care who they hurt or how they affected the economy. Republicans only cared about funding tax cuts for billionaires and making them wealthier
If they had chosen an efficiency model that included competent analysts, clear goals and best practices, likely everyone would have gotten behind it and we would all be there better for it.
But they did not and here we are.
I will be sharing more as we learn more, knowledge is power, please share with those that may find this helpful.