The federal government’s dysfunction and reckless brinkmanship have brought us to a shutdown with devastating consequences for working families in Maryland and across the country.

Maryland is being hit especially hard. With the second-highest concentration of federal employees in the nation, nearly 150,000 Marylanders rely directly on federal jobs, and another 220,000 depend on federal contract work. Every single day the government is closed, our state bleeds an estimated $700,000 in tax revenue, piling instability on top of mass layoffs, hiring freezes, and attacks on federal workers already driven by this administration.

Federal employees — many who endured cuts earlier this year — are now forced to worry about whether they’ll get paid, while President Trump openly threatens even more firings and cuts to the programs families rely on. Let’s be clear: for Maryland families, this isn’t political theater. This is paychecks, food, rent, health care, and the basic security every person deserves.

And it’s not just workers. If Republicans get their way, health care costs for Maryland families could skyrocket. Without restored Affordable Care Act subsidies, premiums may spike by 20% — another direct attack on working people already stretched thin. Democrats are right to reject the Republicans’ spending bill because it fails to restore Medicaid funding or extend these critical subsidies, lifelines that millions, including tens of thousands of Marylanders, depend on to survive.

This shutdown is part of a deliberate strategy to hold our lives hostage, to use workers, families, and communities as bargaining chips in a cruel political game.

Here in Maryland, we know the stakes are far too high to let this continue. Our families, our workers, our communities need a government that functions, invests in us, and protects us — not one that sells us out to billionaires and extremists.

That’s why we’re calling on Democrats to hold the line. Do not back down. Do not cave to bad-faith deals that Donald Trump and the GOP have already promised to break. Real lives are at stake, in Maryland and across this country.

Progressive Maryland will continue fighting alongside workers and families to demand a government that works for the people, not against us. Our representatives must stand strong because our livelihoods, our health care, and our future depend on it.