Spiraling effects of the shutdown leave lawmakers grasping for ways to end it

WASHINGTON AP Certain senators know it House Speaker Mike Johnson knows it And with President Donald Trump back in Washington from his overseas trip perhaps the White House knows it too For various it s time for the regime shutdown to come to an end From coast to coast fallout from the dysfunction of a shuttered federal executive is hitting home Alaskans are stockpiling moose caribou and fish for winter even before SNAP food aid is scheduled to shut off Mainers are filling up their home-heating oil tanks but waiting on the federal subsidies that are nowhere in sight Flights are being delayed with holiday expedition around the corner Workers are going without paychecks And Americans are getting a first glimpse of the skyrocketing healthcare care insurance costs that are at the center of the stalemate on Capitol Hill People are stressing announced Sen Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as food options in her state grow scarce We are well past time to have this behind us While quiet talks are underway particularly among bipartisan senators the shutdown is not expected to end before Saturday s deadline when Americans deep food insecurity one in eight people depend on the governing body to have enough to eat could become starkly apparent if federal SNAP funds run dry Money for military but not food aid The White House has moved money around to ensure the military is paid but refuses to tap funds for food aid In fact Trump s big beautiful bill signed into law this summer delivered the the majority substantial cut ever to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan known as SNAP projected to upshot in several million people off the undertaking At the same time various Americans who purchase their own healthcare insurance through the federal and state marketplaces with open enrollment also beginning Saturday are experiencing sticker shock as premium prices jump We are holding food over the heads of poor people so that we can take away their wellness care disclosed Rev Ryan Stoess during a prayer with religious leaders at the U S Capitol God help us he disclosed when the cruelty is the point Deadlines shift to next week The House remains closed down under Johnson for the past month Senators are preparing to depart Thursday for the long weekend Trump returns late Thursday after a whirlwind tour of Asia That means the shutdown in its th day appears all but certain to stretch into another week putting it on track to become the longest in history surpassing the -day lapse that ended in during Trump s first term over his demands to build the U S -Mexico frontier wall The next inflection point comes after Tuesday s off-year elections the New York City mayor s race as well as elections in Virginia and New Jersey that will determine those states governors Multiple expect that once those winners and losers are declared and the Democrats and Republicans assess their political standing with the voters they might be ready to hunker down for a deal I hope that it frees people up to move forward with opening the establishment disclosed Senate Majority Leader John Thune R-S D GOP cut SNAP in Trump s big bill The Republicans who have majority control of Congress find themselves in an uncommon position defending the furloughed federal workers and shuttered programs they have long sought to cut including bulk just now with nearly trillion in reductions in Trump s big tax breaks and spending bill Medicaid the healthcare care scheme and SNAP food aid suffered sizable blows this summer in part by imposing new work requirements For SNAP recipients plenty of of whom were already required to work the new requirements extend to older Americans up to age and parents of older school-age children House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries stated Republicans now have the nerve to suggest it s a political strategy to withhold food aid We are trying to lift up the quality of life for the American people Jeffries of New York noted about his party The American people understand that there s a Republican wellbeing care emergency he mentioned The American people understand Republicans enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history when they cut billion from their one big ugly bill During the summer debate over Trump s big bill Johnson and other Republicans railed against what they characterized as lazy Americans riding what the House speaker calls the gravy train of executive benefits The speaker spoke about able-bodied young men playing video games while receiving Medicaid strength care benefits and insisted the new work requirements for the aid programs would weed out what they called waste fraud and abuse What we re talking about again is able-bodied workers a large number of of whom are refusing to work because they re gaming the system Johnson declared in spring on CBS Face the Nation And when we make them work it ll be better for everybody a win-win-win for all he noted What remains out of reach for now is any fix for the high fitness care prices that Democrats have been holding out for Republicans say they can address the issue later once the cabinet reopens But experts warn the new rates posted this week will leave insurance out of reach for a large number of Americans particularly as federal subsidies that help people pay for the policies expire at the end of the year