Your hard-earned tax dollars are footing a $1.2 billion bill for federal workers to sit at home during a government shutdown.
Fox News reported that this fiasco, sparked by Senate lawmakers failing to hammer out a budget deal, kicked off early Wednesday morning in October 2025, and it’s bleeding taxpayers an estimated $400 million daily to compensate furloughed employees who aren’t even clocking in, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
That staggering daily tab, as reported by Sen. Joni Ernst’s office, has already piled up to $1.2 billion by Friday, with no end in sight.
House lawmakers tried to avert this mess by passing a short-term funding extension in September 2025, aiming to keep the government humming through late November, but the Senate couldn’t get it together.
Now, roughly 750,000 federal employees are furloughed each day, per CBO estimates based on agency plans and Office of Personnel Management data, though that number could shift as agencies adjust their staffing.
And here’s the kicker: a 2019 law guarantees these workers backpay once the shutdown ends, meaning taxpayers are on the hook no matter how long this drags on.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who requested a cost breakdown from the CBO ahead of the deadline, didn’t mince words about the waste. "Schumer’s Shutdown Shenanigans mean taxpayers will be on the hook for another $400 million today to pay 750,000 non-essential bureaucrats NOT to work," she told Fox News Digital on Friday.
Well, isn’t that a bitter pill—paying top dollar for zero output while families stretch their own budgets?
Republicans, including the Trump administration, point fingers at Democrats, claiming the holdup stems from a push for taxpayer-funded healthcare benefits for unauthorized migrants, a charge Democrats flatly deny.
Democrats, in turn, toss the blame right back at Republicans, leaving the public caught in a political ping-pong match while the meter keeps running.
Amid this standoff, the Trump administration is gearing up for potential layoffs across federal agencies, with thousands of jobs possibly on the chopping block.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Thursday, October 2, 2025, that the cuts could be substantial, noting the Office of Management and Budget is working overtime to identify which programs and departments to target.
President Trump himself met with OMB chief Russell Vought that same day to strategize, signaling just how serious the administration is about trimming fat during this crisis.
While the CBO’s numbers draw partly from a partial shutdown during the first Trump administration, from late 2018 to early 2019, the current situation feels like déjà vu with a heftier price tag.
Fox News Digital sought comment from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office on the CBO figures and Ernst’s sharp critique, but as of the latest update, no response has been forthcoming.
Perhaps they’re too busy dodging accountability to explain why taxpayers are shelling out for a government that’s essentially on vacation.
