Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity AI, Google Gemini and ChatGPT.

The federal government is hours away from a shutdown, with funding set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless Congress acts. Lawmakers must pass either a full-year spending package or a temporary extension — known as a continuing resolution — to keep federal agencies and services operating beyond Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

But this looming shutdown represents far more than a routine funding dispute. At stake are fundamental questions about the role of government, health care access for millions of Americans and the basic functioning of democratic institutions.

The standoff combi

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