CT Senator Warns Of ‘Fiscal Precipice’ As Government Shutdown Looms

by Jamil Ragland

HARTFORD, CT — As the country enters the final day before a potential government shutdown, Connecticut’s senior senator is calling on his Republican colleagues to prevent an “avoidable” shutdown he said would throw the country into uncertainty.

“We are fast approaching a fiscal precipice, a cliff that could take the government and our economy into really cataclysmic waters,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, said at the State Capitol Monday morning.

While playing chicken with government shutdowns has become a standard practice in Washington over the last couple of decades, those fights have usually been centered around raising the government’s debt ceiling, he said.

This time, however, the government is set to shut down as a result of Congress’s failure to pass a budget bill for the upcoming fiscal year which begins October 1. Blumenthal said there are 12 appropriations bills under consideration, but none would be ready by the end of the fiscal year. Congress instead would have to pass a temporary measure, called a continuing resolution, to keep the government funded at current levels until the bills become law.

Without a deal for a continuing resolution, the government will shut down at midnight on Tuesday. 

At issue is Democrat’s demand that Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which have subsidized health insurance costs for millions of low and middle income Americans since the COVID-19 pandemic, be extended. The credits are set to expire at the end of 2025. 

Congressional Republicans have expressed willingness to extend the credits, but only with reforms and as part of a negotiation to take place after government funding has been passed. Democrats have balked at that suggestion, using the threat of a shutdown as leverage to get the subsidies extended. 

According to Blumenthal, without the subsidies, Americans who get their insurance through ACA insurance exchanges could see their costs increase by 75% on average. Blumenthal said 90% of Connecticut residents who use ACA insurance rely on the subsidy. 

“The refusal of Republicans to work with us on extending the health care insurance subsidies is dumb and cruel, and needlessly, recklessly pushing us toward a fiscal cliff that will damage the economy for everyone,” Blumenthal said. 

Blumenthal said the Trump administration has yet to identify which government workers it would consider essential in the event of a shutdown, leading to uncertainty about which government services will be available, and what level of service will be present due to potential staffing shortfalls.

The Trump administration has also threatened to permanently fire furloughed federal employees in the event of a shutdown. The Office of Management and Budget has instructed departments to identify programs, projects and activities which will lose funding October 1 and have no other replacement funding, and prepare reduction in force plans that would permanently eliminate those jobs and programs.

While Blumenthal said any firings could be reversed by either the courts or Congress, such a move would lead to turmoil and confusion for Americans who rely on government services. 

“I know a lot of people are asking, what will happen if there’s a shutdown? And the answer is we don’t know with any kind of certainty or precision.”

Trump was set to meet with congressional leaders from both parties Monday afternoon in a last-ditch effort to avoid a shutdown.