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On Politics With Lisa Lerer

For Some, the Shutdown Isn’t About Politics. It’s About Bills and Groceries.

Júlia Quintanilla has worked for decades cleaning government offices.

Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.

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For Júlia Quintanilla, a janitor at the Department of Agriculture, the government shutdown isn’t about building a border wall or standing up to President Trump. It’s about groceries.

More specifically, it’s about being able to feed the three people living in her home: Ms. Quintanilla, her disabled mother and her 3-year-old grandson.

“I had put a lot of food in the freezer and we’re taking it all out. The last fish and the last shrimp and the last chicken is all we’re eating now,” said Ms. Quintanilla, 54, who’s worked for nearly three decades cleaning government offices since she came to the United States from El Salvador. “I’m worried about not having food this week.”

As the government shutdown continues into a third week, we’re starting to hit the pain point, where the impacts will begin to ripple far beyond the 800,000 affected federal employees, many of whom will miss their first paycheck this week. Those workers are already cutting their spending, meaning that everyone from the owner of City Cup Cafe in Oakland, Calif., to landlords in Duluth, Minn., are feeling the effects.

There’s a lot that the government does that’s been put on hold, like collecting critical scientific data, providing business loans and funding some health care services.

And then there’s the world of government contractors — a sizable industry that relies on the federal government for their income, including not only the usual suspects, like big defense contractors, but security guards and cleaning services like the one that employs Ms. Quintanilla.

Ms. Quintanilla makes about $600 a week from her work at the Department of Agriculture. A second, part-time job cleaning at the Department of Housing and Urban Development provides some additional income. She hasn’t gotten paid from either since the shutdown began, before Christmas, and she’s scared of what the future might bring.

“Months or years?” she asked, through a translator, when told on Friday of Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the shutdown could continue almost indefinitely. “Oh my god, we’re going to die of hunger.”

Her story is just one example of the economic damage wrought by a prolonged shutdown.

If it lasts into February, it could mean severe cuts in food stamps for 38 million low-income Americans. Economists have warned that if it stretches into March, the shutdown could shake consumer confidence and impact the economy.

Contractors are in a particularly untenable situation. Because they work for private companies, they’ve never received back pay when the government reopens. Advocates are drafting legislation to change that, but it remains far from certain whether it can actually pass.

“The damage is already done,” says Hector Figueroa, president of 32BJ S.E.I.U., a labor union that includes 2,000 building service workers caught up in the shutdown. “Our members don’t have savings to rely on. They don’t have much of a cushion. This is incredibly painful.”

The union has become a de facto social service organization, as Mr. Figueroa and others attempt to connect their low-wage workers with food pantries, churches and other organizations that can help them with basic needs like food and medicine.

During the 2013 shutdown, which lasted 16 days, Ms. Quintanilla borrowed about $1,500 to cover her bills, she said. It took her about six months to pay back the money because of the high interest rates. This time, she said, she’s going to try to borrow from family first.

Her message to President Trump and the Democrats? “The politicians should stop hurting people like us. There are thousands and thousands of poor people who don’t make a lot money and who are really suffering because of this.”

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Credit...Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

After announcing her bid for president last week, Elizabeth Warren wasted no time in getting to Iowa, site of the first 2020 primary, to start campaigning. My colleague Astead Herndon traveled with Ms. Warren through the state over the weekend, and he sent us this dispatch:

In her five city Iowa tour, Senator Elizabeth Warren gave a preview of what figures to be her defining message throughout the campaign season: a broad defense of government intervention, and the overarching belief that Washington corruption is the must-solve problem of our time.

Across the state, Ms. Warren told voters that the country’s politics had been corrupted at its core, even before President Trump, and that the next president must work to undo the harm. She seemed comfortable in settings big and small, including a larger Des Moines rally where she lost her voice from a lingering cold but, to paraphrase the T-shirts at her merch table, persisted nevertheless.

Key applause lines: when Ms. Warren calls for ethics reform in Washington and a mandate for all federal candidates to release their tax returns. The crowd also sits at ready attention when she talks about black-white wealth disparities and tells more of her personal story of humble beginnings. Unlike other politicians, who may begin with a joke to put a crowd at ease, Ms. Warren begins with the story of her family’s near foreclosure, and how that informed her political thinking.

Attendees, some of whom did not consider themselves supporters of Ms. Warren at the outset, often told me they left feeling positively about her candidacy. Many said it was the first time they had heard about her family’s struggles with poverty.

One worry, though: Several Iowans mentioned fears that Republicans had already branded her as too far left, and one audience member asked Ms. Warren about her decision to take a DNA test to prove her native ancestry. Ms. Warren again avoided apologizing or acknowledging the criticism from some Native American groups, who remain livid at her decision.

Read Astead’s latest story from Iowa: With Warren Visit, Iowans Get the First Taste of 2020: ‘I’m Ready to Be Convinced’

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Credit...La Tigre

Along with Ms. Warren’s Iowa jaunt, it’s a busy time for potential Democratic candidates. Here are a few highlights:

“Frank from Palm Beach” — otherwise known as Frank Biden — says his brother Joe “absolutely” has one more run for president in him. His remarks followed a weekend story by my colleagues detailing the former vice president’s thinking about the race.

Last week, The Times reported that former Bernie Sanders staffers experienced harassment and sexism on his 2016 campaign. On the heels of that story, one of his home-state newspapers, The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, urged Mr. Sanders not to run, saying, “It is one thing to start a revolution, but at a certain point you need to know when to step out of the way and let others carry the water for you.”

Julián Castro plans to announce his decision on a 2020 bid this weekend. In the meantime, the former mayor of San Antonio is making stops in Iowa and Nevada, with a trip for New Hampshire planned for next week.

John Delaney, the former Maryland congressman who has been all over Iowa since he announced his candidacy in July 2017 — yes, 2017, as in a year and half ago — has hired several senior staffers and will soon open six new field offices across the state, according to The Des Moines Register.

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A prohibitionist campaign appeared to be led by supporters of Roy Moore in the 2017 Alabama Senate race. But it was created by progressives — the second such secret effort to be unmasked.

A New Hampshire man made a Facebook comment calling a police officer who had given him a traffic citation a “dirty cop.” The police, in turn, arrested him, saying he had committed criminal libel.

Did the reality television producer Mark Burnett create Donald Trump? The New Yorker investigates, with a fascinating profile of the creator of “The Apprentice.”

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It’s like Hunger Games. But for salads.

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Thanks for reading. Politics is more than what goes on inside the White House. On Politics brings you the people, issues and ideas reshaping our world.

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A correction was made on 
Jan. 10, 2019

An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of a contracted worker. She is Júlia Quintanilla, not Júlia Quintana.

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