U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright was so anxious that he publicly warned on live television: The National Nuclear Security Administration, which is responsible for the national nuclear weapons and naval nuclear reactors, has no money.On the account there are only eight days of operational funds, no more budget, and nuclear security work outside of emergency affairs must be completely discontinued.

In an interview with Fox News, Wright clenched the microphone and said seriously: "We only have enough money to last another 8 days!"

As a core agency under the U.S. Department of Energy, NNSA carries key tasks such asining the U.S. nuclear arsenal, preventing nuclear proliferation and operating the Navy nuclear power system, and its daily work involves 65,000 employees and contractors.

Wright said that once the funds are exhausted, the NNNSA will only keep a small number of people responsible for the basic security maintenance of nuclear weapons, meaning most of the critical operations will be forced to interrupt.The Ministry of Energy¡¯s emergency plan shows that about 60 percent of employees could be forced to leave, with only 1,757 people left behind because of the urgent need to ¡°protect lives and property.¡±

Many people's impression of the government shutdown may still remain on the cold sign at the entrance of Yellowstone Park that reads "closed temporarily", or they may have lost their overseas travel because their passports cannot be obtained. But this time, the seriousness of the situation has gone far beyond the scope of ordinary public services.

When a country¡¯s nuclear arsenal manager starts to worry about ¡°break food,¡± it¡¯s not a small thing.NNSA is not just protecting those guys, it¡¯s also shouldered with a series of life-threatening tasks such as preventing nuclear materials from falling into the hands of terrorists, ensuring the Navy¡¯s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines operate properly.

According to the Ministry of Energy¡¯s emergency plan, once the funds are exhausted, approximately 60 percent of employees will be forced to go home on unpaid leave.The entire huge nuclear security system, with only 1575 core personnel left, will remain in the name of ¡°protecting lives and property.¡±This means that most critical day-to-day operations will be interrupted.

This involves the livelihoods of 65,000 employees and contractors who are actual operators and defenders of the U.S. nuclear shield.However, in the political game of Congress, they, like more than 750,000 other federal employees, could lose their source of income overnight.

Ironically, those "necessary positions" that are required to continue working, such as military and airport tower controllers, are also not paid and can only be reissued after the political storm is over. It's like an absurd gamble, with politicians competing on Capitol Hill, and the stakes are the mortgage, car loan and next month's tuition for hundreds of thousands of families.

They bet on who can't hold it first and who compromises with each other first. In this tug-of-war, the lives of ordinary people are regarded as bargaining chips that can be sacrificed at will. The deeper question is, when the work of maintaining the upgrade of nuclear weapons and managing the safety of nuclear materials, which requires absolute continuity, is also interrupted, who will be responsible for the possible loopholes?

The direct source of the crisis was the dramatic downfall of House Speaker McCarthy. This was the first in more than two hundred years of U.S. history that his party colleagues ¡°picked him off¡± for reasons that sounded bitter: he passed a 45-day temporary allocation bill in order to avoid government shutdowns, choosing and cooperating with opposing parties.

He wanted to buy some breathing time for the chaotic situation, but in the eyes of a small group of extremists in the party, such compromise was "collaboration with the enemy" and an unforgivable betrayal. As a result, a big drama of "removing the Speaker" was staged vigorously. McCarthy was ousted, Congress was leaderless, and budget negotiations collapsed completely.

The White House can only relentlessly announce to the world that the government has no money and is officially ¡°closed¡±. Senate majority leader Schumer remarked that the Trump administration is ¡°playing politics,¡± while Energy Secretary Wright pointed to the Democratic Party in Congress, accusing them of blocking allocations.

Since 1976, the U.S. government has staged 21 shutdown farce, but this time it has pushed the nuclear safety agency to the edge of a cliff.The harm of this internal consumption to the economy is real. Congress's own budget office has calculated that the 35-day shutdown in 2019 directly permanently evaporated about $3 billion from the U.S. economy.

The loss of money is only superficial, and the deeper trauma lies in the loss of credibility of the country. A country that can¡¯t even hire its own government employees and even nuclear weapons security must beined by the counter, how much remains of its commitments on the international stage?

This strong contrast is particularly dazzling during the National Day. On one side, thousands of homes are lit up and the whole country is celebrating, enjoying a long vacation brought by stability and certainty.On the other hand, the government closed, hundreds of thousands of people were lost, and the state apparatus was plunged into uncertainty and chaos due to internal friction.

As the day of exhaustion of funds approaches, no one knows what the NNSA's "emergency shutdown" will look like, but this will undoubtedly become an extremely dangerous moment in the history of American nuclear safety.

When national security can be reduced to a victim of political struggle, perhaps what really needs to be reflected is the governance model itself that has been in operation for more than 200 years. In this calculating game, politicians may win the next election, but what they lose is the future of the country and the lives of ordinary people.