Micah Getter has been visiting one or two food pantries a week since he was furloughed from his job on Keesler Air Force Base at the beginning of the government shutdown.

In a couple weeks, if the shutdown doesn't end, he'll start refinancing his loans.

Getter and his wife, Goldie Getter, are both Air Force veterans. They've lived through government shutdowns before and, in September, they started preparing for the current shutdown.

"To see it coming, again, was like watching a hurricane coming. It's like maybe it will hit us, maybe it won't," Micah Getter said.

The couple, who have three kids living at their Gulfport, Mississippi home, started saving up money and food. Goldie Getter froze extra meat and canned leftover food.

They say they were prepared for the shutdown, and they're also lucky. Goldie Getter runs an art gallery that is helping them stay afloat during the shutdown, and her husband is still receiving disability and Air Force retirement checks.

Still, Micah Getter said he's worried about what will happen if the shutdown continues through November and if the government keeps shutting down in the future. He hopes the 2026 midterms will be a referendum for Congress.

"People ask me: 'Who do you think is to blame?' And I say every one of those members of Congress," Micah Getter said. "But then you could also take it a step further from that. Maybe it's our fault — yours, mine, there's, everybody's — every voting American's fault because we're the ones who put them in that office."

AP Video by Sophie Bates