Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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1 Comments
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on Wednesday revealing the negative impact that the federal government shutdown could have on the U.S. economy. If Democrats extend the shutdown up to eight weeks, GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2025 could be up to two percent lower.
CBO delivered the report to Congress in response to a request from House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington. In the report, CBO Director Phillip Swagel said that the length of the shutdown will determine the damage dealt to the nation’s economy.
“The agency estimates that the annualized quarterly growth rate of real GDP in the fourth quarter of 2025 would be lower by 1.0 percentage point in the four-week shutdown scenario, 1.5 percentage points in the six-week scenario, and 2.0 percentage points in the eight-week scenario,” Swagel explained.
He added that the shutdown will also cost the economy billions of dollars. “CBO estimates that, by the end of 2026, the reduction in hours worked by furloughed federal employees would result in a cumulative loss of real GDP of $7 billion in the four-week shutdown scenario, $11 billion in the six-week scenario, and $14 billion in the eight-week scenario,” he said.
This damage to the economy takes into consideration the rebound that will occur once the shutdown ends. He explained that the “output lost because furloughed employees worked fewer weeks during the shutdown would not be recovered.”
Arrington published a statement explaining that Democrats are “playing politics” and Americans are “paying the price” as a result.
“While Democrats believe ‘every day gets better for them,’ the same cannot be said for the American people. In fact, a six-week shutdown means growth would be 1.5 percentage points lower, an eight-week shutdown would reduce growth by 2.0 percentage points, and it only gets worse from there,” he said. “Democrats say they shut down the government to help Americans, but this Halloween they’re all trick and no treat. The American people deserve better.”
Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania shared a similar sentiment on X.
“Nobody wins in a shutdown. Democrats know that, and yet they continue to ‘leverage’ Americans’ pain for political gain,” Smucker said. “The nonpartisan CBO confirmed the Democrat-led Shutdown only hurts our economy more the longer Democrats refuse to open the government.”
As AMAC Newsline reported earlier this week, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union published an open letter on Monday calling on Senate Democrats to pass a “clean continuing resolution” and end the government shutdown. Senate Democrats have blocked the continuing resolution’s passage on 13 occasions since the shutdown began. Senate rules require at least 60 votes to pass most legislation, including funding bills.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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