With just days left to avert a government shutdown, the White House and President Joe Biden himself fully have gone on the messaging offensive, seeking to lay out what such a scenario would mean for the American people and making it clear who they believe the public should blame. 

“I’m prepared to do my part, but the Republicans in the House of Representatives refuse, they refuse, to stand up to the extremists in their party. So now everyone in America could be forced to pay the price,” Biden said in a video posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday. The post included a caption labeling the looming situation an “extreme Republican shutdown.” 

For weeks, when asked about the potential scenario and the president’s role in stopping it, White House officials have pointed to the deal Biden cut with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in May to make the case the president has already done his part and the GOP needs to do theirs. 

That deal to suspend the nation’s debt limit as the country was barreling toward a default included agreements on budget levels for the next fiscal year aimed at reining in spending to get GOP support and avoid the exact situation Washington, and the country, finds itself in now. 

But it was not enough for some in the GOP’s right flank – and since then, the House has moved forward with spending bills below the levels the debt agreement laid out.

The president this week is now seeking to explain that directly to the American people, saying in Tuesday’s video that ‘there is a small group of extreme House Republicans who don’t want to live up to that deal.” 

“So they are determined to shut down the government,” he added. 

He made the same argument just a day before during brief remarks at a meeting with the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, making it clear voters can punish the GOP at the ballot box. 

“Funding the government is one of the most basic, fundamental responsibilities of Congress and if Republicans in the House don’t start doing their job, we should stop electing them,” Biden said. 

It comes as White House officials this week have leaned in to emphasizing what is at stake if funding lapses. 

On a call with reporters on Tuesday, White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stressed that with the government shut down, U.S. military servicemembers, including 1.3 million active-duty troops, would still have to show up to work without getting paid. 

“Republicans are playing partisan politics here with American lives, with our national security,” he said. 

In an interview with Spectrum News, Kirby also noted “hundreds of thousands of federal employees, civil servants, in the Department of Defense alone” could be furloughed, arguing it would impact recruitment. 

“Most recruiters are active duty members, of course, but they are backed up by civilian employees in those recruiting offices and in headquarters,” he said. “It could have an effect on our ability to bring in fresh troops from the military.” 

During past shutdowns, lawmakers have passed legislation enabling servicemembers to continue getting paid. Asked by Spectrum News about the likelihood of such an effort moving forward this time, Kirby emphasized “we shouldn't even be having this discussion.”

“We want to see our troops get paid for the dangerous and difficult work that they do around the world,” he said. “But again, it shouldn't come to this, it shouldn't come to some sort of carve-out for the troops, Congress needs to do the right thing here.”

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh made the same case that this conversation should not be happening in the first place. However, pressed on whether the department would support such an effort in the face of a shutdown, she said: “Of course we are always going to support any pay for our military families.”

To kick off the week, the White House deployed Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – who held the same position in the Obama administration during the 2013 shutdown – to Monday’s press briefing. Vilsack warned about the impact of a shutdown on loans for farmers and those buying homes in rural areas as well as the effect a funding lapse would have on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). 

“During the course of a shutdown, millions of those moms, babies, and young children would see a lack of nutrition assistance,” Vilsak said at the press briefing, estimating that WIC would last “a day or two” and even states with funding reserves would likely run out within a week.

Earlier on Monday, the Biden administration circulated state-by-state data for the seven million “vulnerable moms and children” that rely on government assistance for food, WIC “serves nearly half of babies born in this country.” If the government shuts down, the White House estimates the food assistance would dry up within days.

Additionally, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made the rounds on Sunday shows this weekend to warn that a shutdown would halt air traffic control training, an area that has seen staffing shortages.

With funding for this fiscal year set to run out on Sept. 30, prompting a shutdown on Oct. 1 if no budget or short-term spending extension is passed, the House GOP has yet to unite around a plan to avoid a shutdown. 

Spectrum News' Joseph Konig contributed to this report