By Cindy Bregin Crouch
Emmy Winning Investigative Reporter
November 13, 2025
If any of us were to call in sick to our jobs for 43 days, I’m quite certain we would be shown the door. To me, it is unfathomable that all of these holier than thou Congress people and senators feel that 43 days off the job is acceptable. Meanwhile, the list of people that were not paid during the shutdown is lengthy and distinguished.
Among the unpaid:
- air traffic controllers
- the military
- all federal employees
Paid: all senators and congress people
Air traffic controllers silently protested by calling in sick. TV coverage of soldiers grocery shopping for cheap food was heartbreaking. How can we expect these young women and men to protect us when we can’t even pay them on time? The timing on the entire ordeal could not have been worse. Already during the same shutdown the entire nation was waiting to see what would happen to SNAP benefits on November 1st. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was in danger of falling short at the first of the month. And fall short it did.
The government shutdown created what felt in some circles like pure chaos. Forty-two million Americans depend on SNAP for food. Personally, I have never had an employer withhold payment. Crazy. More now than ever people are living paycheck to paycheck. If they ever had savings it’s gone. In theory, most people are in favor of having a small emergency fund. However, an emergency fund requires people to save not spend money. Why should average citizens bother to save when their own government cannot pull off saving for the future. That’s a valid point.
Wednesday night Congress finally ended the shut down. President Trump signed off on the reopening. America breathed a collective sigh of relief. Now, if only we had balls to tell Congress they needed to catch up by working every weekend until the end of the year. After all, they are working for us.
