A new report examining worker layoffs in the United States this year finds that the numbers through October closely resemble those seen during recessions in the past. The report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a private firm that tracks workplace hirings and firings across the country, found that there were 153,074 layoffs reported last month alone, a 183 percent increase from September.
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There’s a popular and recurring chant that echoed throughout the recent No Kings protests several weeks ago: “This is what democracy looks like.”
But on Capitol Hill over the past four weeks, during a protracted government shutdown, Republicans have been displaying the opposite.
The quiet, moribund center of American government looks anything but like a democracy. The deserted hallways and empty offices portend something radically different: a future where the messy work of legislating on behalf of the public is replaced by the whims of a ruling oligarchy.
In other words, Republicans are showing us what autocracy looks like.
To understand why, and the implications for the body politic, it’s critical to recount how their handling of the ongoing shutdown has been remarkably anti-democratic.
It began when Democrats refused to vote for a continuing resolution to fund the government last month. Democrats wanted Republicans to reauthorize expiring Obamacare tax credits, subsidies enacted during the pandemic to make insurance premiums more affordable for millions of Americans. Republicans allowed them to lapse in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
Democrats have called the end of these credits a crisis. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 2.2 million people will lose health insurance if the subsidies aren’t renewed.
But instead of getting to work and negotiating, House Speaker Mike Johnson sent the entire legislative body home. It was not just an impractical move; it made the possibility of brokering any kind of deal exponentially more difficult.
Importantly, many of Johnson’s own constituents depend on the very programs his party has refused to fund. His district has one of the highest percentage of Medicaid recipients for a Republican controlled district in the country.
As the government shutdown stretches into its fourth week, Republicans are managing the crisis as if democratic accountability no longer applies—stalling Congress, ducking public scrutiny, and holding lifesaving ACA tax credits and SNAP benefits hostage for partisan gain. The result is immediate and unequal harm: millions risk losing healthcare while one-man rule, dark money, and gerrymandered advantage erode what little democracy we have left. Reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis break it all down in this installment of the Inequality Watch.
Credits:
Studio / Post-Production: David Hebden
Written by: Stephen Janis
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Hello, my name is Taya Graham and welcome to our Inequality Watch Reaction Report, the show where we break down how money and wealth control and warp our government and the way we live today. Along with my reporting partner Stephen Janis. Hello, Stephen.
Stephen Janis:
Hey Taya. How are you? Doing
Taya Graham:
Well. Today we’re going to break down a very troubling aspect of the current government shutdown, namely that Republicans are managing it like the end of democracy is near. And this is not just about voting or the electoral system in general, which is constantly under assault, but rather how a lack of democratic accountability can affect the actions in even the psychology of a party and how it uses and even abuses power. Now Stephen, before we dig into this, and this might sound like an odd question, but why do we care about democracy?
Stephen Janis:
Well, the thing is that so far in the history of civilization, the only system
In this special crossover edition of Working People and The Marc Steiner Show, hosts Maximillian Alvarez and Marc Steiner examine how the “artificial intelligence” (AI) boom is shaping the economy and the impact it is already having—and will continue to have—on working people’s lives, livelihoods, and jobs. Alvarez and Steiner speak with two members of a new mutual aid and advocacy group called Stop Gen AI, which formed this year out of the critical need to provide material support for creatives, knowledge workers, and anyone else impacted by generative AI.
Guests:
Kim Crawley is a former cybersecurity professor and co-author of The Pentester Blueprint. She founded Stop Gen AI in May 2025 in response to the immense socioeconomic harm generative AI has done to her and her peers, and to the vast environmental, cultural, scientific, psychological, and economic harm it does to the world. Stop Gen AI is unique for its anticapitalist focus and commitment to raising survival funds for people who are struggling.
Emmi is an information security expert with experience across many niches of the industry, including application security across a number of verticals, and she is a specialist in insider threat and cyber threat intelligence. She joined the efforts of Stop Gen AI in 2025 due to the overwhelming amount of friends she has seen lose their entire lives and careers due to the out-of-control AI bubble. She also has nearly two decades of experience with boots-on-the-ground union organizing, protesting, and activism.
Additional links/info:
Stop Gen AI website and Mastodon page
Stop Gen AI Twitch Fest information
Khiree Stewart, WBALTV 11, “‘Just holding a Doritos bag’: Student handcuffed after AI system mistook bag of chips for weapon”
Marc Steiner & Maximillian Alvarez, The Marc
The current shutdown of the federal government is more than just a dispute between two parties with different policy ideas. It’s also a stark example of how America’s massive wealth inequality continues to weaken our democracy. Taya Graham and Stephen Janis break down the evidence that billionaires are running the show.
Credits:
Written by: Taya Graham
Studio/Post-Production: David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Inequality Watch Report. I’m Taya Graham, your inequality watchdog. Now, these past two weeks, Washington didn’t just shut down the government. It shut down equality because when the government stops working, inequality doesn’t take a break. It actually cashes in. Now Republicans are saying that the shutdown is about bad policy from Democrats, but we see something different that it is fundamentally about inequality and we can prove it right, Stephen?
Stephen Janis:
Yeah, absolutely. This is what I think we are going to start calling the first full throated inequality shutdown. It’s not just about politics. It’s not just about who has different policy proposals. I think we’re seeing something really, really different. It’s been evolving and it’s been on the horizon for a long time, but walking around Capitol Hill, we are seeing a different force here that is kind of defining the moment. I think it has a lot to do with economic inequality.
Taya Graham:
Now, what have you been seeing on Capitol Hill? I mean, we’ve been going to DC I would say, every other day for the past two weeks monitoring this shutdown. What have you
The federal government shutdown is now in its fourth week. Over 700,000 federal employees have been furloughed, with nearly as many continuing to work without pay, yet there are still no signs that an end to the shutdown is near. “Unlike past presidents, Mr. Trump appears to feel little urgency to strike a deal to reopen the government,” Luke Broadwater writes at The New York Times. “Instead, he has used the shutdown, which began Oct. 1, as an opportunity to further remake the federal bureaucracy and jettison programs he does not like, seizing on unorthodox budgetary maneuvers that some have called illegal.” In this episode, we speak with three furloughed federal employees about the harm government shutdowns cause working people, and we discuss why this shutdown is different.
Guests:
Adam is a furloughed federal employee who works in recreation for the US Forest Service, managing hiking, biking, and equestrian trails in central Idaho. He serves as chapter president of National Federation of Federal Employees Local 1753, and he is an organizer with the Federal Unionists Network.
Ellen is a furloughed federal employee who works in SNAP oversight and administration at the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. She serves as chapter president of National Treasury Employees Union Local 255, representing FNS employees at the Northeast regional office, and she is an organizer with the Federal Unionists Network in Boston.
April is a furloughed federal employee who works in the office of Head Start at the Administration for Children and Families HQ in Washington, DC. She serves as chapter president of the National Treasury Employees Union Local 250.
Additional links/info:
Federal Unionists Network website, BlueSky, and Instagram
Federal Unionists Network: “Join Us To