Government shutdown updates: Judge lays out path for SNAP benefits

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that he and Speaker Mike Johnson had a discussion earlier this week on the shutdown, but after each party leader characterized the other as "irredeemable," it's clear the two did not have a productive conversation.

"They're irredeemable on a whole host of issues. They certainly are irredeemable, these Republican extremists, when it comes to actually standing up for the American people," Jeffries said. "Republicans have done this, and they now refuse to even sit down and address the health care crisis that they have inflicted on the American people."

Earlier Wednesday, Johnson had said that both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Jeffries were "irredeemable" -- as Republicans continue to troll Democrats over the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York.

Jeffries confirmed that the topic of the call was the shutdown, but expressed doubt that the top congressional leaders will break the impasse. Instead, he predicted it'll be rank-and-file members who strike a bipartisan compromise.

"It was a brief conversation. I reiterated our position as it relates to a willingness to sit down to find a bipartisan path forward, that we want to continue to support our hard working federal employees, who they've been victimizing since Jan. 20, that we need to reopen the government, and we need to do it now, but we also need to address the Republican healthcare crisis," Jeffries said as he read out the call with Johnson. "Our position as Democrats has been clear. We're not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to cut the health care the American people."

-ABC News' John Parkinson

House Speaker Mike Johnson warned Wednesday that the impacts of the government shutdown this week are "getting really tough for the American people" and placed the onus squarely on Democrats.

"You've got families and children that rely upon SNAP benefits that are going to go hungry here at the end of the week," he said at a news conference.

Johnson downplayed pushback from Republicans who want the House to return to session amid the ongoing government shutdown.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke up on a private GOP conference call Tuesday and urged leadership to bring the House back as well as articulate a plan to address the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits.

"By our count, there are about three or four members of the House Republican conference who have only mildly questioned working in the districts as opposed to being here on the floor," Johnson said.

The speaker bluntly stated that bringing the House back in session would be a "futile exercise" when asked about the need to pass another bill to fund the government as the Nov. 21 date approaches.

"If I brought the House back and we passed another CR, it would meet the exact same fate from Chuck Schumer," Johnson said. "He would mock it. They would spike it, and they would try to blame it on us. So, what is the point?"

Johnson added that "it doesn't matter what we do in the House," diminishing the chamber's role in the shutdown.

-ABC News' Lauren Peller

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown will delay federal spending and have a negative effect on the economy that will mostly, but not entirely, reverse once the shutdown ends.

The report, issued Wednesday, found that the shutdown will reduce annualized real GDP growth. After the shutdown, real GDP will be temporarily higher than it would have been otherwise, the report said.

Although most of the decline in real GDP will be recovered eventually, the CBO estimates the shutdown will cost between $7 billion and $14 billion.

The CBO estimates that the output lost because furloughed employees worked fewer weeks during the shutdown would not be recovered.

By the end of 2026, the reduction in hours worked by furloughed federal employees would result in a cumulative loss of real GDP of $7 billion in the four-week shutdown scenario, $11 billion in the six-week scenario, and $14 billion in the eight-week scenario, according to the report.

-ABC News' Zunaira Zaki

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene -- who has been critical of Speaker Mike Johnson’s shutdown strategy -- spoke up on a private GOP conference call Tuesday and urged leadership to bring the House back as well as articulate a plan to address the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits.

The congresswoman further explained publicly what she said on the private call, saying she disagreed with the House being out of session.

"And I demanded to know from Speaker Johnson what the Republican plan for healthcare is to build the off-ramp off Obamacare and the ACA tax credits to make health insurance affordable for Americans. Johnson said he’s got ideas and pages of policy ideas and committees of jurisdiction are working on it, but he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call. Apparently, I have to go into a SCIF to find out the Republican healthcare plan!!!” she wrote in a post on X.

ABC News' Lauren Peller and Justin Gomez