WASHINGTON: The US government shutdown barrelled towards its second month on Friday and the pain is spreading fast — with federal workers broke, food aid vanishing and millions of Americans caught in the crossfire.

What started on Oct 1 as a Washington sideshow has morphed into a slow-motion implosion of public services and a growing economic convulsion, with federal offices dark and President Donald Trump’s government stuck in neutral.

Republicans have warned that millions will begin feeling the full force of the shutdown for the first time this weekend, as unresolved fights over funding for health care and food stamps make them hungrier and poorer.

“Most people haven’t noticed up until this week. Thanks to Donald Trump finding a way to pay our troops last month, that pain was delayed,” Republican House whip Tom Emmer told Fox News.

“But, starting this week… this is starting to become very real.”

At the heart of the fight is money to help Americans cover health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Those subsidies — a lifeline for more than 20 million people — are set to expire at year’s end and, unless Congress acts, premiums will skyrocket when the new sign-up period opens on Saturday.

But Washington’s warring parties are locked in a familiar, bitter loop, as Democrats refuse to reopen the government without a deal to extend the subsidies and with Republicans saying they won’t talk until the lights are back on.

As Washington bickers, the shutdown’s fallout is rippling through everyday life and starting to pinch where it really hurts — the dinner table.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP), which helps 42 million low-income Americans buy groceries, is set to run out of funds this weekend.

Democrats have been pushing the White House to use $5 billion in emergency cash to cover food stamps, but the administration says it cannot legally tap that fund.

‘Breaking point’

“We are now reaching a breaking point thanks to Democrats voting no on government funding now 14 different times,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.

“You’re going to have real people, real families — you’re going to have children — who will go hungry beginning this weekend,” he added.

With no end to the shutdown in sight, the deadlines are piling up fast.

A food aid programme for pregnant women, new mothers and infants is also on the brink, while programmes that provide nutrition and family support to 65,000 infants could begin shuttering from Saturday.

The administration says it has scraped together enough money to cover payday for active-duty troops, but acknowledges that they could go unpaid by mid-November.

Some 670,000 federal workers have been sent home without pay, and another 730,000 — from park rangers — to air traffic controllers — are working for nothing. Many missed their entire pay for the first time this week.

The country’s largest federal workers’ union, AFGE, is begging Congress to pass a stopgap bill to get pay cheques flowing again. But even that has become political quicksand, with Democrats holding the line.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2025