On the Wednesday, November 12, 2025 episode of The Excerpt podcast: Nobody seems to have gotten everything they wanted out of the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Not the Democrats. Not the Republicans. And definitely not the American people. Was it worth it? USA TODAY Congress Reporter Zach Schermele joins The Excerpt to talk about the winners and losers.

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Dana Taylor:

As day 43 of the shutdown begins, speaker Mike Johnson has ordered representatives back to Capitol Hill where a House vote on the continuing resolution passed Monday by the Senate could take place as early as this evening. If it passes and President Donald Trump signs it into law, which he has said he'll do, the government will be funded through the end of January when lawmakers will have to go back to the bargaining table to agree on a fiscal year budget.

Hello and welcome to USA TODAY's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, November 12th, 2025. Nobody seems to have gotten everything they wanted out of the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Not the Democrats, not the Republicans, and definitely not the American people. Was it worth it? Joining me to discuss the fallout is USA TODAY Congress reporter, Zach Schermele. Thanks for joining me, Zach.

Zach Schermele:

Thanks so much for having me.

Dana Taylor:

As I mentioned, the Democrats didn't get any concessions from their Republican colleagues on Obamacare subsidies, which are still on track to expire at the end of the year. Can you give me a sense of what kinds of premium increases people will have to deal with?

Zach Schermele:

Democrats are characterizing this, Dana, as a looming healthcare crisis for millions of Americans. So according to some estimates, as many as five million people could be uninsured come next year, and as many as 22 million Americans could see their premiums skyrocket. This is something that has been brewing for a long time for the American people after Congress extended some enhanced premium tax credits. And lawmakers did actually get some version of a concession from Republicans that progressives don't necessarily say is enough for them, but what moderate Senate Democrats were able to get from Republicans was a commitment to a vote in the second week of December on extending these Obamacare subsidies.

It's not entirely clear that there are going to be the votes in Congress to extend those subsidies. In fact, Congress already voted this week on potentially adding an amendment to the shutdown deal that would extend these enhanced premium tax credits for one year. That vote already failed, so that's a bit of a bellwether as to what we could see in terms of a vote in the second week of December. But we're just going to have to keep an eye on what lawmakers do between now and then to try and add some guardrails to these premium tax credits in order to address some of the concerns from Republicans primarily around the ability or lack thereof of undocumented immigrants to access any form of federal subsidies for healthcare.

Dana Taylor:

Some Obamacare members are simply not going to be able to afford healthcare in the new year. Do we have any idea as to how many people might drop off the rolls and what the impact might be?

Zach Schermele:

So the primarily most affected states are going to be places like Florida, Texas, Georgia, California. Those are the states that have the highest number of Obamacare enrollees. And over the last couple of years, since Congress increased its commitment to these enhanced premium tax credits, we have seen enrollment in Obamacare essentially double. There are more than 20 million Obamacare enrollees in the country, and as many as five million of them, like I said, could ultimately lose their insurance according to some estimates depending on what Congress decides to do going forward.

And there are even Republicans in the House of Representatives and in the Senate who acknowledge, Dana, that this is an issue. Folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a very conservative member of Congress who said that her own family members who are enrolled in Obamacare could be affected by premiums doubling or as much as tripling come next year. So there is something of an appetite to do something about this issue in Congress that's going to be creating, and in fact, is already creating, a lot of pain for Americans who are looking at their enrollment for next year. It's an open question just how far the White House is going to allow Congressional Republicans to go on this.

Dana Taylor:

Let's turn now to SNAP, the anti-hunger program that 42 million people rely on to fight food insecurity. Where are we with restoring those benefits so people can get their families fed?

Zach Schermele:

Dana, it's really unfortunate the amount of legal back-and-forth and political gridlock that has affected all of those families that are reliant across America in blue and red states and cities on food assistance. Since the shutdown began, we've been looking at creeping funding deadlines that I know has left a lot of Americans really terrified about going to stores and seeing their EBT cards come up empty. When this funding package passes, I think that there is relative certainty from the White House and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the SNAP program, that Americans who are on SNAP benefits are going to ultimately get the benefits and the money that they are entitled to. I think whether or not we see any forms of disruptions, though, because of all of this back and forth in the courts is more of an open question over the coming days and weeks here.

Dana Taylor:

Travel at airports across the country has been disrupted by thousands of canceled flights with air traffic controllers still not paid and many calling in sick. What is it going to take to get the nation's air traffic back to running smoothly, and do we think that it will all be sorted out by Thanksgiving?

Zach Schermele:

Well, that is a question that I, and I'm sure anybody who is hoping to travel over the course of the holidays is continuing to ask. We are still, remember, in the very early stages, the beginning of the end of this shutdown, which remember was the longest in U.S. history, and air traffic controllers have gotten used to, over the course of many weeks here, not getting paychecks. Disruptions and flight cancellations that have been increasing and intensifying across the country by the day affecting some of the most major international airlines and hubs across the country.

And so, there is a commitment from lawmakers and from the White House to opening the government to making sure that those air traffic controllers get paid. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said and assured Americans that he's not going to let planes in the air if that flight is unsafe, but there is a lot of uncertainty I think right now about whether or not further disruptions are going to continue. I think Duffy has a challenge on his hands in terms of trying to right the ship here, and exactly how successful he is in that endeavor before Thanksgiving, even though the shutdown will be over by then, is not totally clear.

Dana Taylor:

Zach, I want to turn now to the politics of this moment, the 60-40 Senate vote that saw seven Democrats and one independent who caucuses with Democrats step across party lines to pass this continuing resolution that angered some of the party's leaders who said that their messaging was, in fact, landing with American voters. What did the yes voters give as their reasoning?

Zach Schermele:

I've been talking to a lot of these moderate and centrist Democrats over the course of the shutdown in the halls of Congress and outside the Senate chamber, and it has really just been clear over the course of this time period that they have been itching for the government to reopen. But people like Angus King, that senator from Maine who's an Independent and caucuses with the Democrats, he's been voting from the beginning for the shutdown to end and to continue to fund the government. These more moderate Democrats have been saying that this kind of pain, particularly pain relative to federal workers is just not acceptable. And they started to make clear that the implications of the shutdown on Americans were starting to affect a greater number of individuals than arguably the folks that Democrats were initially fighting for with respect to extending those Obamacare subsidies. Like I said, that's around over 20 million people.

There are more than 40 million people that are reliant on SNAP benefits. There were millions more that have been in the air since the beginning of October, and I think it just became clear to them that this pain and this suffering was too intense for them to be able to stomach. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia who was really a key vote, I chatted with him just right after he got off the Senate floor on Monday night about why he took the vote that he did, and he said that reversing the federal layoffs, not furloughs, but layoffs, of more than 4,000 workers that happened during the shutdown was a really key part of his decision to ultimately support this package and a big concession from the White House and congressional Republicans.

Dana Taylor:

And then, Zach, what are you hearing from progressives in the party?

Zach Schermele:

Well, progressives are not happy. I spoke with a visibly upset Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, who was certainly eyeing some form of a presidential gambit over the coming years here and is one of a number of more progressive lawmakers who really took a pugilistic stance with respect to this shutdown. They were saying from the beginning that Democrats need to hold firm, they need to be stubborn. And they made the argument that the American people wanted Democrats in Congress to stand up to Republicans and to the Trump administration, and in this moment of relatively little political leverage here in Washington to use this tool that's at their disposal to try and make sure that healthcare costs for Americans could improve. Progressives are not happy to say the least. I think that if we're thinking about winners and losers of this shutdown deal, progressives in Congress are certainly among the losers.

Dana Taylor:

It was just a little over a week ago that voters handed Democrats solid wins from New York to Virginia. How have democratic voters, especially young voters, responded to this vote to end the government shutdown?

Zach Schermele:

We're still in the early days of seeing responses and reactions from all sorts of Democrats, but what's been interesting has been watching how folks who are running for election in Congress have responded to it. I'm thinking in particular of the daughter of Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, who was really key in crafting the bipartisan deal with respect to a vote on extending those healthcare subsidies. And her own daughter, Stephanie Shaheen, who is running for the House of Representatives, came out against her mother's own deal and the agreement. And that I think really underscores the complicated politics of this moment and how folks who are more on the left end of the Democratic flank understand that taking a fighting stance is important in this moment with voters.

But I think the turning point too came when Abigail Spanberger, the governor elect in Virginia, who swept to victory about a week before the deal was reached, she said in an interview over the weekend that she felt like her victory was not an excuse for congressional Democrats to continue to hold firm with respect to the shutdown. And that was something that not insignificant number of Senate Democrats on the more centrist side we're talking about this week.

Dana Taylor:

And what has the President said about this deal?

Zach Schermele:

He is happy with it. He was asked in the Oval Office in particular about the provision related to reversing federal firings, which one would think the White House would have demonstrated a little bit more consternation over. But he said it's a very good deal and he wants to sign it. He wants the government to be open. He was at a football game over the weekend with House Speaker Mike Johnson, and I think he has made very clear to congressional leaders that this shutdown needs to end and it needs to end soon.

Dana Taylor:

Zach Schermele covers Congress for USA TODAY. You're always in the thick of it, so it's always good to have you on, Zach. Thank you.

Zach Schermele:

Thank you.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks to our senior producer Kaely Monahan for production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. I'll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY's The Excerpt.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The government shutdown caused a lot of pain for Americans | The Excerpt

Reporting by Dana Taylor, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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