Another government shutdown? This is what we know now
The federal government has been shut down again, how is it different from the past 20? This is what we know now.
- At this point, Washington is being consumed by assigning responsibility rather than ending government closures.
- On opening day, Trump uses the closure to freeze billions of people into democratic states with federal grants, threatening federal workers layoffs.
- For Congressional Democrats, the party’s loudest voice is not about compromise, they want to fight.
And on the fifth day, no one left.
It wasn’t like Washington was consumed on October 5th to try to resume the federal government. The radio waves on Sunday were instead held responsible.
The budget showdown has previously set off this fiscal cliff, but today’s version is a nuclear war of closure, with more explosive impact on the government and more intense incentives to maintain it.
New York House Democrat leader Hakem Jeffries called President Donald Trump’s tactics “outrageous” and “hingeless” during the shutdown.
“Americans are better than lies or attacks than deepfake videos and presidents spend all their time on the golf course,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We need serious leadership.”
But House Speaker Mike Johnson responded that Democrats are responsible for giving the administration the power to cut federal jobs and freeze grants.
“In a situation like this where Senate Democrats decide to turn the key to the kingdom to the White House, they have to make a tough decision,” the Louisiana Republican told NBC. He said Russell Vote, director of the Office of Management and Budget, “We need to determine what the key programs, policies and personnel are. That’s not a job he enjoys. But he needs to do it by Chuck Schumer.”
Neither side sounded like a compromise. Certainly, Johnson filled the house for the week.
Trump: “Unprecedented Opportunity” to Wise Power
In the past half century, all presidents except George W. Bush and Joe Biden have overcome at least a few days of closure. During their tenure, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama all saw the closure for more than two weeks.
The 35-day record was set during Trump’s first term. The closure ended when it folded a request for more funds to build a wall along the southern border.
The current shutdown is not at least the longest – yet, yet – but has acquired the most widespread and substantial impact of any of them. In a drastic effort in a second term to expand presidency powers, Trump seized the opportunity to threaten federal workers’ layoffs and freeze billions of federal subsidies to largely democratic nations.
“I can’t believe the radical left Democrats have given me this unprecedented opportunity,” the president cried on social media.
That might help explain why Trump didn’t rush to negotiate a contract with Democratic Congressional leaders. “Donald Trump is in the Presidential Witness Protection Program,” Jeffries complained. “No one can find him.”
As the closure looms, Trump told reporters that instead of simply raiding them like the previous closures, it could launch a “huge number” of federal workers. He vowed to target “Democrats” and “Democrat agencies.”
In the early days of the shutdown, his administration frozen $18 billion in federal funds for New York City’s major infrastructure projects, put on hold $2.1 billion in funds for the Chicago Transit Project, and cut nearly $8 billion in energy sector grants in 16 states.
Incidentally, all these states were carried by Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
For Democrats, complex political calculations
For Democrats, some of the incentives today are fighting rather than compromise.
The party’s core supporters have exacerbated their Congressional leaders by failing to effectively stand up to Trump during his second term’s dizzy months.
In an NPR/Malist poll conducted in late September, fewer than half of Democrat voters, and less than 48%, approved Job, which Congressional Democrats had done. In contrast, 87% of Republicans approved the work that Congressional GOPs were doing.
Furthermore, Democrat voters are increasingly ruined for the fight. 47% say it’s more important for parliament members to stand on principles, even if it meant a government shutdown. That’s the ocean change from the vote before the 2013 closure, when Democrats compromised 4-1.
When Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer avoided the closure in May, he faced an explosion of protest from the party’s most liberal voices and speculation that New York State Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might challenge his reelection campaign in 2028.
So far, his tone has been indomitable.
“Well, look, sometimes there are a lot of differences,” Schumer said on CNN. Democrats are demanding Medicaid cuts be restored, with healthcare subsidies being extended. Republicans say they won’t negotiate during the closure. “They seem to be more interested in protecting the Epstein Files than protecting the American people and their health care.”
Early votes by news organizations showed that Americans were more responsible for Republican closures than Democrats, but margins were not overwhelming. One in four responded that they were not sure who had to take responsibility.
However, they said about one in three had been decided: they denounced both sides.
