When President Donald Trump announced last week he wanted Congress to “pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill,” that should have dropped the chances of a federal shutdown to near zero.
After all, shutdown threats tend to get driven by conservative hard-liners intent on cutting spending — and who better than Trump to pull them in line and keep the government open?
So it’s quite a testament to how dramatically Trump has shaken up Washington over the past six weeks that the likelihood of a shutdown hasn’t abated. In fact, according to my reporting, it might actually have increased.
This time, it’s Democrats who are itching for a fight — over the Department of Government Efficiency cuts that Trump has blessed and deputized mogul Elon Musk has gleefully carried out.
Are they going to count down from three before they do it, so we know they mean it this time?
Democrats don’t usually force shutdowns because the people most likely to suffer under a shutdown are federal, state, and local government employees, people who work in academia, and people in major metropolitan areas, all of whom make up a significant portion of the Democratic base. It doesn’t make sense to force a shutdown if your own voters are just going to blame you for the disruption it causes to their lives anyway.
Now there’s far more to lose, and Trump is going to get the blame for it. Shutdown for a few weeks to protect a few hundred thousand federal workers for at least a year is a pretty safe gamble when you’re not likely to get blamed for the short-term disruption anyway.
To your first point, there is a high likelyhood that the GOP will defund the programs the Dems want to keep anyway, or they will get DOGEd after the fact.
They can not expect promises to maintain social safety nets to be kept, so why bother trying to work with the right, let them get a taste of their own obstructionist excriment.
Of course I get all that but I will not believe them until they actually do it.
I am straight up calling the Dems cowards who lack the balls to do anything bold at all.
I am willing and hopeful to believe I am overly cynical but dang, look at that track record.
As a federal employee, we’re pretty safe during a shutdown these days. As long as we have direct deposit for our paychecks through them, USAA and the like (military/federal banks and credit unions) have our backs. Back pay is (currently, by law) guaranteed when the furlough ends. Main health insurance continues uninterrupted, still have to pay out of pocket for dental and vision (not really bank breaking tbh)
https://www.usaa.com/inet/wc/ent-gov-shutdown-assistance-landing-mkt
Bring it the fuck on and put the screws to them.