BALTIMORE: The Federal Aviation Administration delayed flights for a third straight day on Wednesday (Oct 8) at airports including Reagan Washington National and Newark Liberty International Airport as the agency continued to face higher-than-normal staffing shortages.
There were nearly 3,000 flight delays by 5.30pm (Thursday, 5.30am, Singapore time) after 10,000 delays in total on Monday and Tuesday with thousands tied to the FAA slowing flights because of air traffic controller absences at facilities across the country as the government shutdown reached its eighth day.
Some flights at Reagan were being forced to hold in the air due to a slowdown in air traffic, the FAA said.
“Historically, there’s about 5 per cent of delays that is attributed to staffing issues in our towers. Last couple days it has been 53 per cent,” US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said on Fox News’ “Will Cain Show.” “My message to the air traffic controllers who work for DOT is show up for work – you have a job to do.”
Air traffic control staffing issues during this shutdown have emerged earlier than the last major halt to government funding in 2019, during US President Donald Trump’s first term, leading to unexpected shortages in cities around the country.
After the Trump administration learned that the government shutdown would cause the Women Infants and Children Program (WIC) to run out of funds, they have pledged to keep the program going during the shutdown by using tariff funds to pay for it.
White House press secretary announced on X, “The Democrats are so cruel in their continual votes to shut down the government that they forced the WIC program for the most vulnerable women and children to run out this week. Thankfully, President Trump and the White House have identified a creative solution to transfer resources from Section 232 tariff revenue to this critical program. The Trump White House will not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry because of the Democrats’ political games.”
In its continued effort to steamroll conventional tactics and apply unprecedented innovation to running the federal government, President Donald Trump will steer tariff revenue to a program that feeds infants to keep it operating while the federal government is shut down.
The Women Infants and Children program, still known as WIC even though its official name is the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, was in potential danger of running out of cash amid the government shutdown, for which Trump has blamed Democrats.
A Harvard-Harris poll shows a supermajority of Americans think the GOP will win the government shutdown battle. The poll asked, “Who do you think will win the government shutdown- the Democrats or the Republicans?”
62% of respondents chose the GOP and 38% chose the DNC. GOP voters picked their side with 92% of the vote while the Dems were only 70% sure they will win. The difference comes from independents, who chose the GOP by a 62-38% margin over the DNC.
62% of Americans believe Republicans will come out ahead of Democrats in the government shutdown battle, a new Harvard-Harris poll reveals.
Democrats are holding out over continued healthcare subsidies left over from the COVID-19 pandemic.
They are blaming the GOP for not acquiescing to their demands to pass funding.
Democrats, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), apparently believe they have a winning strategy by refusing to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open.
Unfortunately for them, the American people see right through this.
White House debates pulling back pay from furloughed workers– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
The White House is scrutinizing ways to keep federal workers who were furloughed during the government shutdown from receiving back pay.
The Trump administration is eyeing a memo from the Office of Management and Budget that asserts there is a loophole in a 2019 federal law seeking to ensure government workers are guaranteed retroactive compensation for time off during shutdowns, an administration official confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
The development comes as President Donald Trump and Republican leadership in the House and Senate seek to increase pressure on Democrats to pass a “clean” continuing resolution to reopen the government. If the White House acts on OMB’s recommendation, the Trump administration will say Democrats are to blame for as many as 750,000 federal workers being denied retroactive pay due to accusations that the opposition triggered the move by thwarting the CR’s passage.
The memo from OMB Director Russell Vought’s office argues that an amendment made to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act nine days after the law’s original signing changes the interpretation of the back pay protections for furloughed workers, according to Axios. Rather than workers automatically getting back pay under GEFTA, Congress would have to get involved in funding retroactive salaries, under OMB’s interpretation of the law.
Senate votes for fifth time against advancing legislation to end the shutdown– www.politico.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Senate is trapped in a shutdown Groundhog’s Day with no end in sight.
Senators rejected dueling stopgap spending bills Monday for the fifth time as lawmakers show few signs of nearing a detente —even as the shutdown-induced pain is poised to grow as the federal funding lapse heads into its second workweek.
Senate Republicans had hoped the Trump administration’s imminent threat of mass firings, paired with a weekend back home to hear from constituents, would shake loose even a couple of potential swing-vote Democrats. Add to that the fact that most federal workers and active duty members of the military are due to miss their first paychecks Oct. 10 and Oct. 15, respectively.
But Monday evening, Democratic Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada — alongside Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats — were once again the only three to break ranks and vote to advance the GOP-led stopgap bill, which would fund the government until Nov. 21.
Earlier in the day, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reiterated that Democrats are ready to negotiate on a deal to end the shutdown, but the discussion on health care needs to happen now.
Schumer rejects Trump’s claim that bipartisan government shutdown negotiations are under way – live | Trump administration– www.theguardian.com Source Link Excerpt:
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that negotiations with Democrats are underway.
“Trump’s claim isn’t true – but if he’s finally ready to work with Democrats, we’ll be at the table,” Schumer said in a statement. “For months, Democrats have been calling on Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to come to the table and work with us to deliver lower costs and better healthcare for the American people.”
Minority leader Chuck Schumer on 3 October 2025. Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
He added: “If President Trump and Republicans are finally ready to sit down and get something done on healthcare for American families, Democrats will be there – ready to make it happen.”
Earlier today, Trump told reporters that “we are speaking with Democrats” regarding the ongoing government shutdown and that “some good things could happen with health care.”
“Just hang in there, because I think a lot of good things could happen, and that could also pertain to health care,” Trump said.
Hakeem Jeffries Claims Republicans Will Cave to Democrats Over ‘Public Sentiment’– conservativeroof.com Source Link Excerpt:
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is expressing the belief that Republicans will cave to Democrats, attributing that prediction to “public sentiment.”
He didn’t mention, however, that it was the Democrats who shut down the government for political purposes.
Given the way that the president has been tweeting memes about you, has been in your words, in the words of Democrats, already dismantling health care, what makes you think that he will negotiate anything?” a reporter asked Jeffries. “What makes you think that he and Republicans will cave to you?”
“Public sentiment. At the end of the day, the public knows that Donald Trump and Republicans have shut the federal government down and that they’re continuing to engage in the chaos and the cruelty and the corruption that we’ve seen from this administration, from day one of the presidency,” Jeffries replied.
“Again, this is, this is the first week of their shutdown, but we’ve had months of chaos and cruelty unleashed on the American people, and the American people are paying close attention, and they know that it was Donald Trump and Republicans who have shut the government down,” he claimed, despite the fact that some Democrats have openly admitted that they shut down the government to fight for healthcare for illegal immigrants.
Trump no longer distancing himself from Project 2025 as he uses shutdown to further pursue its goals– japantoday.com Source Link Excerpt:
President Donald Trump is openly embracing the conservative blueprint he desperately tried to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign, as one of its architects works to use the government shutdown to accelerate his goals of slashing the size of the federal workforce and punishing Democratic states.
In a post on his Truth Social site Thursday morning, Trump announced he would be meeting with his budget chief, “Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”
The comments represented a dramatic about-face for Trump, who spent much of last year denouncing Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s massive proposed overhaul of the federal government, which was drafted by many of his longtime allies and current and former administration officials.
Both of Trump’s Democratic rivals, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, made the far-right wish list a centerpiece of their campaigns, and a giant replica of the book featured prominently onstage at the Democratic National Convention.
Shutdown enters second week with no breakthrough in sight– www.washingtonexaminer.com Source Link Excerpt:
The government shutdown entered its second week on Monday as a solution to Washington’s gridlock over the federal budget continues to elude lawmakers.
The Senate is set to vote on a “clean” continuing resolution, or CR, on Monday evening that would keep the government funded at its current levels until late November. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will need to pick up five Democratic votes to pass the measure. That means the stopgap spending bill will likely not advance, as only three lawmakers in the Democratic caucus have crossed the aisle, with no others announcing plans to join Republicans over the weekend.
On the House side, Republicans have refused to budge on hashing out another deal viewed more favorably by Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has argued Democrats have backed similar “clean” CRs keeping the government open over a dozen times in recent years. Johnson has argued that concerns that the latest measure doesn’t contain provisions extending Obamacare subsidies, which have led Democrats to block the CR, are nothing more than a political ploy designed to appease fringe elements in the party opposed to President Donald Trump’s GOP.
Johnson sent his conference home in an attempt to push Democrats to the table, saying the chamber had already done its job when it passed the funding bill and sent it to the Senate on Sept. 19. Members are on a “district work period” in their home states until Oct. 13. They are scheduled to return to Washington on Oct. 14.
Democrats Thought They Had the Upper Hand in the Schumer Shutdown. WaPo Says They Just Fell Into a ‘Trap’– townhall.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Washington Post’s editorial board is worried about how Democrats might fare in the battle over the Schumer Shutdown, and they have every reason to be.
The editorial board published a piece on Wednesday describing how Democratic leaders rejected a short-term deal to avoid a shutdown after pressure from the progressive wing of the party. When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) floated the idea of a seven-to-ten-day extension, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) responded, “Hell no.”
Trump to meet with Project 2025 architect on cutting ‘Democrat agendas’ amid government shutdown – live | US federal government shutdown 2025– www.theguardian.com Source Link Excerpt:
Donald Trump is up and truthing as the White House presses on with seizing the opportunity provided by the shutdown to axe federal jobs and Democratic spending priorities. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump writes this morning.
He said he has a meeting today with Russell Vought, “of Project 2025 fame” who is now the head of the office for management and budget, “to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will betemporary or permanent”.
Vought was central to the Project 2025 blueprint and has been on a years-long quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the president. Since Trump took office in January, he has worked alongside the so-called “department of government efficiency” to slash through the federal government.
As we reported yesterday – day one of the shutdown – he’s already started slashing blue state infrastructure spending, cancelling $8bn in climate-related funding to 16 blue states and freezing $18bn for two huge New York City construction projects.
Here’s the post:
I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT
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Trump tells Republicans to ‘clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud’
As congressional Democrats hold out for healthcare subsidies, the Trump administration has repeatedly stated that federal workers will face layoffs while the government is shut down.
Late last night, president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social:
Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Democrats hold firm on healthcare demands as US government remains shut
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. We will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that a vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed on Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund healthcare subsidies that president Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to extend.
The tally showed cracks in the Democrats’ resolve, but the outcome also left no breakthrough, AP reported. Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown.
The White House and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep programs and services open, throwing the country into a new cycle of uncertainty.
At the heart of the issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the coronavirus pandemic.
The credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them, which would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for health insurance premiums, according to analysis.
Meanwhile, as the Trump administration insists it is serious about negotiating an end to the government shutdown, a pair of racist deepfake videos mocking Democratic leaders played on a loop in the White House briefing room for hours on Wednesday.
The videos, posted by Trump on his social media platform on Monday, use fabricated audio to make it seem as if the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called Democrats “woke pieces of shit”, and showed the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, with a fake mustache and sombrero.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, made light of the tactic during a rare appearance in the briefing room. “I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while also making a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions, and even poking some fun at the absurdity of themselves.
“I’ll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make the solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop. I’ve talked to the president of the United States about that.”
Jeffries has denounced the memes as racist. Vance retorted: “I honestly don’t even know what that means. Like, is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?”
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
JD Vance, the vice-president, used false claims to blame Democrats for the government shutdown as the White House warned that worker layoffs were imminent.
Donald Trump quietly signed an executive order on Monday in which he promised that the United States will defend the nation of Qatar by treating “any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure” of the energy-rich Persian Gulf monarchy “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States”.
Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, and both New Yorkers, accused the Trump administration of retaliating against their constituents by putting billions of dollars to revamp transportation infrastructure on hold.
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, said in a statement on Wednesday that “Donald Trump’s unlawful federalization of members of the Oregon National Guard could cost taxpayers up to $10m”.
The Trump administration said that it was putting a hold on roughly $18bn to fund a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey and the city’s expanded Second Avenue subway project – because of the government shutdown.
Donald Trump once again shared misinformation about Portland, Oregon, on social media on Wednesday, when he announced that the national guard troops he called up in response to a small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in the otherwise tranquil city are “now in place”.
Lisa Cook, the US Federal Reserve governor, will keep her job for now, despite Donald Trump’s extraordinary bid to remove her from the central bank’s board with immediate effect.
House Republican on mass firings: ‘We have a bloated government’– thehill.com Source Link Excerpt:
Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) argued the mass firing of federal workers during the government shutdown could make sense, arguing Thursday that the United Staes has “a bloated government.”
Flood argued that it “makes sense” to have “some cuts,” but until he sees the detailed plan, it will be hard to know how it will affect the country and his home state.
Dems Want Free Health Care For Aliens Biden Refused To Deport– thefederalist.com Source Link Excerpt:
Democrats forced a government shutdown this week to preserve health care for illegal aliens who should have been deported by the Biden administration but were instead “paroled” en masse in one of the greatest abuses of executive power in modern times.
Under federal immigration law, foreign nationals who illegally enter the United States must be detained and deported. However, the law also grants the Department of Homeland Security secretary the authority to parole certain illegal aliens on a case-by-case basis, based on “urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit,” according to the United States Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS). As explained by the USCIS, parole “is not intended to be used solely to avoid normal visa processing procedures and timelines, to bypass inadmissibility waiver processing, or to replace established refugee processing channels.”
Weekend votes ‘unlikely,’ Thune says, meaning shutdown could push into next week– www.politico.com Source Link Excerpt:
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on Thursday that it’s “unlikely” senators will be in the Capitol voting this weekend, all but guaranteeing the government shutdown goes into next week.
“They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to open up the government, and if that fails, we’ll give them the weekend to think about it, and then we’ll come back and vote on Monday,” Thune told reporters.
Thune’s comments come as congressional leaders and the White House remain in a stalemate on the second day of the shutdown. Thune left the door open to meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer this week but seemed skeptical that a sitdown would produce a breakthrough.
Hopes fade for quick end to shutdown as Trump readies layoffs and cuts– www.bostonherald.com Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown were fading Friday as Republicans and Democrats dug in for a prolonged fight and President Donald Trump readied plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government.
Senators were headed back to the Capitol for another vote on government funding on the third day of the shutdown, but there has been no sign of any real progress toward ending their standoff. Democrats are demanding that Congress extend health care benefits, while Republicans are trying to wear them down with day after day of voting on a House-passed bill that would reopen the government temporarily, mostly at current spending levels.
“The Far Left barreled our country into a shut down, hurting all Americans,” a HUD spokesperson said in a statement. “At HUD, we are using available resources to continue supporting our most vulnerable. Why is the media more focused on a banner than repo – LinkedIn Source Link
Hakeem Jeffries Freezes When Confronted With Proof Of Healthcare For Illegal Aliens In Dem Plan– trendingpoliticsnews.com Source Link Excerpt:
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was at a loss for words when CNN host Jake Tapper confronted him with the fact that some portions of the Democratic Party’s demands in the ongoing shutdown fight will provide healthcare for illegal aliens and non-citizens.
Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have claimed that they are merely arguing in favor of a continuation of Obama-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that are set to expire and additional healthcare expenditures for American citizens. “It’s a total, absolute [expletive] lie,” Schumer fumed while speaking with MSNBC on Wednesday morning.
Media Outlets Cut Coverage of Speaker Johnson’s G&A on Healthcare for Illegals › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is calling out media outlets for cutting off his remarks yesterday during a Q&A about Democratic demands to restore $200 billion in health care subsidies for illegal aliens.
Both CNN and MSNBC broke away from Johnson’s remarks during a press conference yesterday when the Speaker began citing the Democrat’s continuing resolution (CR) bill that contains $1.5 trillion in spending demands, including restoring $200 billion in taxpayer-funded health care benefits going to illegals.
BREAKING: Federal government enters partial shutdown after funding deadline passes | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com Source Link Excerpt:
“We are not going to be held hostage for over $1 trillion in new spending on a continuing resolution.”
The federal government officially entered a partial shutdown early Wednesday morning after Congress failed to reach a funding agreement before the midnight deadline, leaving thousands of federal workers facing furloughs and halting a range of government services.
A short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution (CR), passed by House Republicans on Sept. 19, collapsed in the Senate late Tuesday after Democrats blocked the measure in protest over being shut out of negotiations and in a push to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies expiring at the end of 2025. The CR would have extended current government funding levels through Nov. 21 to allow more time to finalize the FY 2026 budget.
Senate Republicans are expected to bring the measure up for another vote on Wednesday, with more negotiations likely to stretch into the weekend. But for now, President Donald Trump and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have initiated plans for an “orderly shutdown.”
Democrats argued that their exclusion from talks and the GOP’s refusal to include healthcare subsidy extensions forced their hand. Republicans accused Democrats of holding the government hostage for new spending.
“There isn’t any substantive reason why there ought to be a government shutdown,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). “But we are not going to be held hostage for over $1 trillion in new spending on a continuing resolution.”
Mike Johnson Blasts Democrats’ Government Shutdown Hypocrisy– www.breitbart.com Source Link Excerpt:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) put the Democrats on blast with their own words, showing their hypocrisy as they protested against previous government shutdowns while refusing to put a stop to the looming shutdown that will occur at midnight Tuesday if they do not compromise with Republicans.
Johnson has the following video playing on loop on a television outside his office in the U.S. Capitol, pointing out the blatant contradictions of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and more:
“It is not normal to shut down the government when we don’t get what we want,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor in 2019.
Almost exactly one year ago, Schumer apparently cared about how the government shutdown that he is currently hell-bent on forcing would impact average Americans.
Speaker Johnson Pushes Back Against Media Narrative on Government Shutdown › American Greatness– amgreatness.com Source Link Excerpt:
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is pushing back against the legacy media narrative blaming the Trump administration for the current government shutdown, putting the responsibility on Democratic leaders in Congress.
Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) decision to refuse to pass a short-term stopgap measure to fund the U.S. government for the next 7 weeks is a “very reckless decision.”
The Speaker emphasized that the House had done its job by send a clean continuing resolution (CR) to the Senate so that appropriators in Congress from both parties could continue to do their work on reconciling 12 separate appropriations bills.
House Rules Committee advances GOP’s stopgap ahead of shutdown deadline– thehill.com Source Link Excerpt:
The House Rules Committee voted Monday night to advance the GOP’s bill to avert a government shutdown, dispatching the measure to the full chamber for consideration ahead of Friday’s deadline.
The panel voted 9-3 to adopt the rule, which governs debate on the legislation. The successful vote sends the measure to the House floor for debate and a final vote.
“This legislation helps avoid the government shutting down and allows us to continue our work in service to the American people,” House Rules Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said in her opening remarks of the hearing. “The House must act to avoid a needless shutdown that serves no purpose — by doing so, this body can put its focus and attention on the next appropriations process.”
The continuing resolution, unveiled by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) over the weekend, would keep the government funded through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, while boosting defense funding and imposing cuts for some nondefense programs.
The House is expected to vote on the legislation on Monday. It remains unclear, however, if it has the votes to pass since Democrats are expected to oppose it in droves — their leadership is voting “no” — and a handful of Republicans are withholding support from the measure.
