10 Ways the Government Shutdown Hurts the Working Class
While politicians and the wealthy feel little pain, the capitalist state's failure to function once again makes workers pay the price.
The federal government is going to shut down. For the ruling class and their media mouthpieces, this is a political spectacle. But for the working class, it is a sudden and severe crisis. This shutdown isn't an accident; it's a direct consequence of a political system that serves the wealthy and powerful while treating the needs of the people as a bargaining chip.
The Comrade Courant breaks down the ten ways this manufactured disaster entrenches the suffering of the proletariat.
1. Paychecks Vanish for Millions of Federal Workers
Roughly 800,000 federal employees are immediately furloughed during a government shutdown, while another 1.3 million "essential" workers—including air traffic controllers, TSA officers, and federal law enforcement—are forced to work without pay. These are not bureaucrats; they are nurses, safety inspectors, and custodians who live paycheck to paycheck. The White House has even threatened mass, permanent layoffs, using workers' livelihoods as a political weapon. Meanwhile, members of Congress—many of whom are millionaires—continue to collect their $174,000 annual salaries with no interruption.
2. WIC Nutrition Program Cuts Threaten Mothers and Children
One of the first and cruelest impacts of a government shutdown is on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). This vital program supports nearly half of all newborns in the U.S. and is expected to run out of funds almost immediately during a shutdown. A prolonged shutdown would jeopardize food assistance for 7 million low-income mothers and young children, a stark example of how the capitalist state sacrifices its most vulnerable populations.
3. National Parks Suffer Neglect and Vandalism
While recent administrations have attempted to keep national parks open during shutdowns, they do so with skeleton crews—repeating the same disaster seen in the 2018–19 shutdown. Protected landscapes were vandalized, historical sites were looted, and an off-roader destroyed one of the iconic Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park. America’s natural heritage is left to be plundered because the system refuses to fund its protection during political standoffs.
4. Air Travel Chaos from Unpaid TSA and Air Traffic Controllers
Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers are deemed "essential" but forced to work without pay during shutdowns. During the last prolonged shutdown, this led to widespread "sick-outs" as workers could no longer afford gas or childcare. The result: massive flight delays and a grinding halt to domestic and international travel. While politicians and executives fly private, working people are stuck in endless security lines and canceled flights.
5. NIH and CDC Research Halts, Delaying Life-Saving Medical Advances
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the nation’s premier medical research agency—furloughs up to 75% of its staff during shutdowns. Most new clinical trials are suspended, and patients seeking experimental therapies for cancer, rare diseases, and other life-threatening conditions are turned away. At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than half of workers are furloughed, halting critical research into disease outbreaks, vaccine development, and public health risks.
6. FDA Food Safety Inspections Stop, Endangering Public Health
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halts routine safety inspections of food manufacturing plants during a shutdown. Even more alarmingly, its program for reviewing novel animal feed ingredients is suspended—meaning the agency "would be unable to ensure that the meat, milk, and eggs of livestock are safe for people to eat." Public health is deliberately weakened to intensify political pressure, putting millions at risk of foodborne illness.
7. FEMA and Flood Insurance Delays Sabotage Disaster Recovery
The National Flood Insurance Program shuts down during a government closure, delaying home purchases and refinancing for countless families in flood-prone areas. While immediate disaster relief continues, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund is already running dangerously low. The ruling class ensures corporate bailouts are always funded—but relief for working people facing hurricanes, wildfires, and floods is treated as an optional expense.
8. Civil and Immigration Courts Stall, Denying Justice to Ordinary People
Civil litigation is "curtailed or postponed," and the already overwhelmed immigration court system faces new delays during shutdowns. This denies justice to working families, tenants, and immigrants—while the wealthy and politically connected continue to access a separate, functional legal system through private channels. The shutdown exposes the two-tiered nature of bourgeois justice in America.
9. Economic Damage: Shutdowns Cost Billions and Slow GDP Growth
A government shutdown doesn’t just freeze services—it actively damages the U.S. economy. The 35-day 2018–19 shutdown cost the economy $3 billion in lost economic activity that was never recovered and slowed GDP growth. According to the Congressional Budget Office, each week of a shutdown directly reduces quarterly economic growth by 0.15 percentage points. The capitalist class, in its internal squabbles, is willing to burn the entire economy to get its way.
10. Shutdowns Are a Political Weapon to Dismantle Public Services
This shutdown is not a neutral event. It is an escalation in the ruling class’s decades-long war on the public sector. Threats of mass federal layoffs signal that some in power see this crisis as an opportunity to permanently dismantle government functions and crush public-sector unions. They are manufacturing a crisis to justify the further privatization of public goods—schools, healthcare, infrastructure—and enrich their corporate allies at the expense of working people.
Conclusion: Solidarity Is Our Only Answer
This shutdown is a brutal lesson in class politics. The workers who keep this country running—teachers, nurses, postal workers, scientists, and janitors—are told they are disposable, while the politicians and billionaires who create these crises remain insulated from the consequences.
Our response must be one of unwavering solidarity. We must stand with federal workers forced to labor without pay. We must demand full and permanent funding for WIC, SNAP, FEMA, the NIH, and every social program that sustains life. And we must recognize that these cyclical crises are not bugs in the system—they are features of a capitalist state that is fundamentally hostile to the well-being of the working class. Only through organized, collective action can we build a society where human need comes before political power plays and profit.
The Comrade Courant is a voice for the working class. No war but the class war.
Further Reading: For more on the roots of American authoritarianism, read our analysis on
America: The Original Fascist Blueprint, and more on government shutdowns here Government Shutdowns: Capitalism’s Crisis of Governance and Its Toll on the Working Class.
