Here are real stories of Americans hurt by the Trump Shutdown:
“We’re being held hostage, but we are being hurt, tremendously hurt, through no fault of our own. That hurts. It really hurts.” – Federal worker
“I know that our president said he will hold out for months or even years, but the American people can’t, particularly those who depend on that paycheck to take care of their family.” – Federal worker
“Everybody has bills to pay. We’ve done the work, we deserve to be paid for the work that we’ve done.” – Federal worker
“It’s been an emotional rollercoaster. If I could afford it, I’d probably need to be in therapy right now because that’s all I do is cry. And I don’t want to cry.” – Federal worker
“I’m probably going to have to take out a loan with the credit union so that I can continue to pay my bills. I have unbelievable costs that I’m dealing with and I never anticipated having this shortage of income.” – Federal worker
“I have 7 kids. I’m worried. I’m ok for the next week and a half but if I miss another paycheck, it’s going to hurt, to be honest. I have a stay-at-home mom so I’m the only source of income.” – Federal worker
“When all of this happened, and we were in jeopardy of missing that first check, a lot of the things were able to we pushed until mid-January. Well, here we are, no paycheck for mid-January, so now we’re back on the hamster wheel of seeing if we can do that again.” – Coast Guard wife
“When I called my landlord, the lady at the leasing office, and I let her know that I’m affected by the government shutdown, I’m not getting paid and she said ‘Well ma’am, your rent is still due.’” – Federal worker
“My kids need to eat, they need to have electricity, they need to have water, they need to have security that I’m not going to get foreclosed on.” – Federal worker
“Me being the main provider of the house, my check goes to all the major bills: the rent, all the food, the groceries.” – Federal worker
“It’s been pretty shaking and somber. My husband was not in a happy mood this morning when he got dressed and went to work knowing that we are living on our savings account right now.” – Coast Guard wife
“It’s very stressful. Hard time sleeping at night because you’re thinking about when is the next paycheck coming in.” – Federal worker
“We’ve had to make a lot of adjustments. We’re considering having to pull my daughter out of daycare. We’re trying to stretch out our expenses as long as we can.” – Federal worker