Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that the longer the government shutdown lasts, there will be deeper cuts to the federal workforce, exacerbating uncertainty for hundreds of thousands already furloughed without pay amid the stubborn stalemate in Congress.
Vance warned that the fresh cuts would be “painful” as he entered the 12th day of the federal shutdown, even as he said the Trump administration had pushed to pay the military this week and maintain some services for low-income Americans, including food aid.
Still, hundreds of thousands of government workers have been furloughed in recent days, and in a court filing Friday, the Office of Management and Budget said well over 4,000 federal employees would soon be laid off in connection with the shutdown. The impact of the closure also deepened on Sunday when the Smithsonian announced that its museums, research centers and the National Zoo would be temporarily closed due to a lack of funding.
“The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts will be,” Vance said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Let’s be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. This is not a situation we enjoy. It’s not something we’re looking forward to, but Democrats have handed us some pretty tough cards.”
Unions have already filed a lawsuit to stop President Donald Trump’s budget office’s aggressive move, which goes far beyond what normally occurs during a government shutdown and further escalates tensions between Republicans who control Congress and the Democratic minority.
The shutdown began Oct. 1 after Democrats rejected a short-term funding measure and demanded that the bill include an expansion of federal subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The expiry of these subsidies at the end of the year will result in monthly cost increases amounting to millions.
Trump and Republican leaders have said they are open to negotiating health subsidies but insist the government must reopen first.
There are practically no negotiations at the moment. As always, House leaders from both parties pointed fingers at each other in rival Sunday appearances on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We have made it clear repeatedly that we will sit down with anyone, anytime, anywhere,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. “Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency. It is unfortunate that they have taken a ‘my way or the highway’ approach.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Democrats, saying they “seemed to not care” about the pain the shutdown brought.
“They are trying their best to distract the American people from the simple fact that they have chosen a partisan fight to prove to their emerging Marxist base in the Democratic Party that they are ready to fight Trump and the Republicans,” he said.
Progressive activists, meanwhile, reiterated their support for the Democratic Party’s position in the shutdown fight.
Ezra Levin, co-founder of leading progressive protest group Indivisible, said he was “pleased with the strength of the Democrats’ position.” Citing fissures in the Republican Party, he noted that Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene publicly warned last week that health insurance premiums for average Americans — including her own adult children — would skyrocket if nothing was done.
“Trump and the Republicans are right to take the blame for the shutdown and the threat of premium hikes,” Levin said. “Your chickens are coming home to roost.”
And yet the Republican administration and its allies in Congress show no signs of giving in to Democrats’ demands or backing down from threats to exploit the opportunity to make deeper cuts to the federal workforce.
Thousands of employees at the departments of Education, Finance, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency are expected to receive layoff notices, according to agency spokespeople and federal employee union representatives.
“You hear a lot of Democrats in the Senate saying: How can Donald Trump even fire all these federal workers?” Vance said. “Well, the Democrats have given us a choice between, on the one hand, giving low-income women their food subsidies and paying our troops, and on the other hand, paying federal bureaucrats.”
Democrats believe the layoffs are illegal and unnecessary.
“You don’t have to do this,” Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “You don’t have to punish people who shouldn’t be in this situation.”
