This is the longest shutdown in American history. The budgetary paralysis which is hitting the United States, due to lack of an agreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress, entered its 36th year on Wednesday, November 5.e day. The previous record – thirty-five days – was reached in 2019, during Donald Trump‘s first term. The consequences are growing day by day for millions of Americans.
“I’ll be honest with you, I don’t think any of us expected it to drag on this long.”the Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, confessed earlier Tuesday.
A coincidence of timing, this record came shortly after the announcement of the results of several key elections, where Democrats scored large victories. Virginia, with Abigail Spanberger, and New Jersey, with Mikie Sherrill, notably elected Democratic candidates as new governors, while New York chose the progressive Zohran Mamdani for mayor. The Californians have approved a text aiming to redraw their electoral map, in response to a similar movement by Republicans in Texas.
So many votes serving as a barometer for the first nine months of Donald Trump’s second term, who pointed to budgetary paralysis to explain his party’s electoral setbacks. “Trump was not on the ballot, and the budgetary shutdown, [sont] the two reasons why Republicans lost the election tonight, according to pollsters »rejected the Republican president on his Truth Social platform.
In the other camp, it was time for celebration. “Democrats are smoking Donald Trump and extremist Republicans across the country”joked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The opposition now hopes to be able to use these electoral results as leverage to move the lines of budgetary paralysis. Because the effects of the blockage are being felt more and more for Americans.
Technical unemployment and disrupted social assistance
Hundreds of thousands of federal civil servants have been placed on furlough, with deferred pay, and hundreds of thousands more are forced to continue working, without pay either, until the crisis ends. Social benefits are also seriously disrupted.
Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that since the main food aid program was running out of funds, the payment of this assistance from which 42 million Americans benefit would be frozen as long as the “radical left democrats” will not have voted to end the shutdown.
Federal justice, however, ordered the administration to maintain this aid and White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt assured Tuesday that the government would comply with legal decisions. “SNAP recipients need to understand that it will take time to receive this money, because Democrats have put the administration in an untenable position.”she claimed to the press.
At airports, the stalemate is also being felt with shortages of air traffic controllers leading to delays and cancellations of flights. And if the budgetary paralysis extends beyond this week, American airspace could be partially closed, Transport Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Tuesday. “You will see widespread chaos”he declared, putting pressure on the opposition to lift the blockage.
In Congress, the positions of the two camps are not changing: the Republicans are proposing an extension of the current budget, with the same spending levels, and the Democrats are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance programs for low-income households.
Due to the rules in force in the Senate, several Democratic votes are necessary to adopt a budget, even if the Republicans have the majority. But Donald Trump rejects any negotiation with the opposition on health without “reopening” of the federal state as a prerequisite.
Tuesday at midday, the Senate rejected for the 14the times the Republican proposal. As since the first vote, only three opposition senators voted in favor.
