Trump hosts Senate Republicans at renovated White House as the shutdown drags into fourth week

WASHINGTON (AP) — Head Start programs for preschoolers nationwide are scrambling for federal funds. The federal agency tasked with overseeing the U.S. nuclear stockpile has begun furloughing its 1,400 employees. Thousands more federal workers are going without paychecks.

But as President Donald Trump is welcoming Republican senators for lunch in the newly renovated Rose Garden Club and breaking ground on the new White House ballroom, the GOP is projecting a unified front as it refuses to yield to Democratic demands for health care funds while the government shutdown drags on.

It was a festive atmosphere under crisp but sunny autumn skies as Trump's favored songs — “YMCA” and “You Can't Always Get What You Want” — played over the new sound system.

“The whole White House is being redone,” Trump said in opening remarks, extolling the renovations underway as senators took their seats in the newly-paved over garden-turned patio.

Trump praised the GOP leadership, singling out senators by name, trashed former President Joe Biden and previewed his own upcoming foreign travel and tariff policies, which he told skeptical GOP senators are fueling the economy.

“We're a wealthy nation again," he said.

As the government shutdown enters its fourth week — on track to become among the longest in U.S. history — the country is feeling the financial hit. Economists have warned the federal closure, leaving most the 2.4 million-strong federal workforce without pay, will shave economic growth by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points per week.

There are few signs of any end to the stalemate. Republicans say the Democrats are holding the government hostage, beholden to far-left demands to provide billions of dollars in health care subsidies.

“Republicans are united, and I expect the president to say, ‘Stand strong,’” said Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, second in Senate GOP leadership, said early Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”

But Senate Democrats, emboldened after last weekend's mass “No Kings” rallies against Trump's leadership, are confident in their strategy. They have voted more than 10 times against a House-passed bill that would temporarily reopen the government until Republicans, including Trump, engage them on extending health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said as GOP senators prepared to board buses to the White House, “Apparently, they've got plenty of time for a mini-pep rally with Donald Trump, In the meantime, the pain for Americans is getting more and more real.”

Missed paychecks and programs running out of money

While Capitol Hill remains at a standstill, the effects of the shutdown are worsening.

Federal workers are set to miss additional paychecks amid total uncertainty about when they might eventually get paid. Government services like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, and Head Start preschool programs that serve needy families are facing potential cutoffs in funding. On Monday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the National Nuclear Security Administration is furloughing 1,400 federal workers. The Federal Aviation Administration has reported air traffic controller shortages and flight delays in cities across the United States.

At the same time, economists including Goldman Sachs and the nonpartisan CBO have warned that the federal government's closure will ripple through the economy. More recently, Oxford Economics said a shutdown reduces economic growth by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points per week.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce noted that the Small Business Administration supports loans totaling about $860 million a week for 1,600 small businesses. Those programs close to new loans during the shutdown. The shutdown also has halted the issuance and renewal of flood insurance policies, delaying mortgage closings and real estate transactions.

And without action, future health costs are expected to skyrocket for millions of Americans as the federal subsidies, first enacted during the COVID-19 crisis, come to an end. Those subsidies, in the form of tax credits, expire Dec. 31, and insurance companies are sending out information now about the new rates.

Most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive, according to a new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, as they make decisions about next year’s health coverage.