More Americans blame President Trump and Republicans in Congress than Democrats for the nearly month-long government shutdown, 44% to 33%, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

“A federal judge on Thursday indicated she would probably order the Trump administration to use reserves to partially fund food assistance for about 42 million Americans in November, potentially delaying a complete cutoff in benefits during the government shutdown,” the Washington Post reports.

“President Trump’s budget team raided three different financial accounts to make sure U.S. troops are paid Friday as the government shutdown continues,” Axios reports.

“As long as military personnel are paid, Trump isn’t planning to budge on the nearly month-old shutdown, even with as many as 42 million people set to lose food stamp benefits Saturday.”

“If you listened to House Republicans on Wednesday, Zohran Mamdani shut down the federal government,” Punchbowl News reports.

“House Republican leadership continually blamed the funding impasse on Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York. It’s the newest GOP talking point with the citywide election less than a week away.”

“This is no more true than when Republicans blamed the continuing shutdown on the recent ‘No Kings’ rally. But they’re running with it.”

“Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has seized on the plan that Republicans floated – and then discarded – to soften the government shutdown’s sting for some federal workers and aid beneficiaries,” Axios reports.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters that “the White House has found a way to pay troops amid the shutdown,” Punchbowl News reports.

“Republican dissent over House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) shutdown strategy spilled out on a private GOP call this afternoon, with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas.) adding himself to the growing list of lawmakers questioning whether they should still be home in their districts,” Axios reports.

“Dozens of Democratic attorneys general and governors are planning to sue President Trump’s administration Tuesday over its decision to not tap emergency funds amid the government shutdown to keep food aid flowing to 42 million Americans next month,” Politico reports.

“Food banks are already seeing a surge as tens of millions of families prepare for their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to freeze,” Axios reports.

“The federal government shutdown will stop food aid Nov. 1 for some 42 million Americans, the latest blow for low-income families already struggling with rising costs and shrinking federal benefits.”

“Democrats grappled Monday with the first major fraying of their coalition amid the government shutdown, with a federal employee union calling for them to stand down four weeks into the standoff,” Politico reports.

“There was no immediate surrender from party leaders, but the union’s plea forced many Democratic lawmakers into a defensive crouch. Their No. 2 Senate leader said it would be a subject of internal conversations this week with bipartisan talks all but ground to a halt.”

Said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL): “It has a lot of impact. They’ve been our friends.”

NOTUS: Democrats say federal workers don’t want them to cave. Their union says otherwise.

Tara Palmeri: “Behind closed doors last week, Senate Democrats reached a grim conclusion about the government shutdown: it’s not ending anytime soon.”

“The most optimistic estimate circulating among Democratic senior staffers? Late November. If you ask Republicans, it’s worse — December.”

“Why? Because, as one Democratic senator put it at a briefing on Wednesday bluntly, Trump doesn’t even know what’s in his own funding bill.”

“And even worse, as another insider said, ‘Trump’s bored of it.'”

David Frum: “Previous shutdowns were fought over specific grievances: Republican pressure against new taxes in 1990, then for spending cuts in 1995–96 and again in 2013; Democratic resistance to Donald Trump’s border wall in 2018–19. At 35 days, that latter shutdown holds the record for the longest—for now.”

“These specific grievances were never the whole story, but they enabled each side to explain itself and offered an exit when the time came to resolve the dispute. For example, the 2018–19 shutdown ended when Trump dropped his demand for a $5 billion appropriation for his wall.”

“The present shutdown was also triggered by a single issue: the COVID-era tax credits that subsidize health-insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act, which Democrats want to extend before they expire at the end of the year. Yet a compromise over the stated cause will barely address the real issue at the center of this fight.”

“That real issue is Trump’s challenge to Congress’s constitutional taxing and spending powers.”

“The nation’s largest union of federal workers is calling on Congress to pass a short-term funding bill and immediately end the government shutdown as it heads into its fourth week,” Politico reports.

From a statement: “Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight. It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”

The Bulwark: “It’s no surprise government employees are under extra duress during a lengthy shutdown, particularly since the White House has used it as a pretext to do still-deeper cuts to the federal workforce. But whether this open pressure shakes any additional Democrats loose from their till-now firm opposition to a current-levels spending bill remains to be seen.” 

“The U.S. government’s debt burden is on track to exceed levels in both Italy and Greece for the first time this century, underscoring the parlous state of America’s public finances,” the Financial Times reports.

“The government shutdown gets uglier at the end of this week,” Politico reports.

“With President Donald Trump traveling abroad and Congress still deeply divided over a path to fund federal agencies, a pileup of deadlines on and around Nov. 1 is set to put many U.S. households at risk of new hardship: Popular programs that provide nutrition assistance, early childhood education and air service to rural communities are now among those about to run out of money.”

Punchbowl News: “The fallout from the shutdown is growing worse by the day. The risk for Democrats is that these impacts begin to overshadow the health-care issues they’re trying to fix. For the GOP, it looks like they can’t govern.”

“Sen. Rand Paul has a new idea to end the government shutdown, calling on President Donald Trump to appoint a bipartisan commission to address the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies at the heart of negotiations,” NOTUS reports.

Said Paul: “I suggest that President Trump come forward and name three Republicans and three Democrats in the Senate to an official commission to figure this out over a one-month period and come back with a solution. But in exchange for that, I think the Democrats need to open the government for a month, and then we need to pay the workers, pay our soldiers.”