WASHINGTON — The federal government shut down overnight, escalating a blame game and opening the door to a disruption of services that will also heighten depending on how long this government shutdown lasts.
Many Minnesotans will not feel the impact right away. Social Security payments will continue and Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs patients will continue to receive care. Post offices will remain open and mail will still be delivered because the U.S. Postal Service is largely funded by fees for its services, including revenue from stamps and special deliveries.
Federal courts will continue business as usual — at least for a while — and most congressional offices will pick up the phone when a constituent calls, though many of those offices will have furloughed staffers and those who are still at work will not receive pay. Members of Congress, however, will continue to receive their paychecks.
But about 18,000 Minnesotans who work for the federal government will not receive paychecks, and — depending on whether they are deemed “essential” — are now furloughed or at their jobs without pay.
Related: What happens now that a government shutdown is underway
A new threat to the federal workforce during this government shutdown is President Donald Trump’s unprecedented threat of mass firings.
If the impasse is not resolved soon, the poorest Minnesota residents will soon feel the full brunt of the government shutdown. New Medicaid applications — as well as new applications for Medicare — will likely be delayed, as will applications for other anti-poverty programs, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and food stamps.
And, depending on the length of the government shutdown, funding for several of those anti-poverty programs could be ended.
The Minnesota Department of Health said the state has only “several weeks” of funds for WIC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s supplemental nutrition program for women and children. The department is urging recipients to continue to attend appointments.
“Minnesota WIC staff is monitoring the situation, communicating with vendors, and will send updates as needed,” the department said.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could also run out of money, especially if the shutdown lasts more than a month.
And parents whose children attend Head Start may also be affected. Head Start facilities renew their contracts with the federal government every year, and those with contracts expiring in October may be forced to close.
But it’s not only low-income Minnesotans who will feel the effects of the shutdown. Businesses seeking government contracts — and those with multiyear contracts that expect new funding — may also have to put their plans on hold — and possibly lay off workers.
The shutdown’s dangerous politics
The federal government shut down because congressional Democrats insisted on concessions on health care funding to approve a short-term bill proposed by the GOP that would have allowed the government to operate until Nov. 21 at last year’s funding levels. (The federal fiscal year runs from Oct. 1-Sept. 30).
But the disruptions and pain caused by the shutdown makes the White House and congressional lawmakers keenly focused on the political liability of the closing of government.
On Wednesday, Minnesota lawmakers joined in a rapid escalation of the blame game.
U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said GOP leaders in Congress should not have been surprised that Democrats wanted concessions for their support.
“The Republicans have known for nine months that the Affordable Care Act tax credits are an issue for us … and they also knew that Medicaid cuts were a huge problem for us,” McCollum said.
Democrats want to extend a Biden-era expansion of subsidies for those who purchase insurance through ACA exchanges — the one in Minnesota is called MNsure. But those enhanced subsidies, used by about 90,000 Minnesotans, will expire at the end of the year without congressional action. State officials say the expiration of those subsidies will result in 60,000 newly uninsured Minnesotans.
Democrats also want a rollback of Medicaid cuts that have been implemented in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).
McCollum said a failure to push back would signal to the GOP, and its constituents, that “everything (Republicans) have done is OK.”
“No, it’s not OK,” McCollum said.
At the MinnPost Festival on Saturday, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., also said it was time for her fellow Democrats to push back. “These people are bullies,” Smith said. “And they will continue to bully until we say, ‘No.’”
Meanwhile on social media, Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday trolled the GOP by comparing his governance of Minnesota to the handling of the federal budget by Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House.
“Minnesota: Split bipartisan Legislature. Kept the government open. Invested in improving lives. Responsible budget cuts,” Walz posted. “Washington: Republicans control House, Senate, Oval Office. Government shutdown. Driving up health care costs by thousands. Skyrocketing national debt.”
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s Republicans echoed Trump’s condemnation of Democrats for failing to vote on the GOP’s stopgap spending bill.
The GOP is also accusing Democrats of demanding health care benefits for “illegal aliens,” a claim that bears some scrutiny.
“Democrats are holding the American government hostage over crazy partisan demands, which includes health care benefits for illegal aliens,” U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District, said in a posting on X.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6th District, said, “Make no mistake: The Democrats’ top priority is not fighting for Americans’ health care.”
“Their top priority is picking a fight with President Trump, giving illegals free health care, and scoring political points with their far-left base in the process,” Emmer said in his post on X.
However, people living in the country without legal permission have never been eligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies, although the OBBBA narrowed the eligibility of certain immigrants with permission to live and work in the United States, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and others with temporary protected status.
Related: How a federal government shutdown would affect Minnesotans
And the Medicaid cuts Democrats want restored also restricted legal immigrants’ access to the program.
While both Democrats and Republicans hope the opposing party will suffer from the shutdown in next year’s midterms, University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said the intense political fight over the shutdown may not have much of an effect because those elections are more than a year away.
But Sabato also said that “Trump is so associated with conflict and governmental chaos, in general, that it may just be the public’s default position to be likelier to blame him and his party for a shutdown.”
Another thing Sabato noted: “Democrats are feeling pressure simply to fight.”
Government shutdowns have lasted just a few days — and some just a few hours — to more than a month. The last federal shutdown occurred during Trump’s first term and lasted 35 days in a standoff over congressional Democrats and the president over Trump’s demand for funding for a border wall. Republicans blinked.
The post Low-income Minnesotans likely to be the first to feel impact of government shutdown appeared first on MinnPost.
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