The federal government shutdown has, at this point, become a battle of wills. Democrats have perhaps realized that they have painted themselves into a corner, but appear to believe that agreeing to end the hiatus without getting Republicans to give in to their demands will be seen as a defeat. Meanwhile, President Trump has figured out a way to kill two birds with one stone. He has seized the opportunity to further cull the federal workforce and targeted government agencies closest to Democrat hearts. Still, the US Senate will, on Oct. 14, hold another vote to reopen the government.
The sticking point for congressional Democrats – so they say – is an extension of subsidies that prop up the ironically named Affordable Care Act, A.K.A. Obamacare. The clean CR passed by the House did not extend those subsidies, but it was only a stopgap measure, funding the federal government through Nov. 21. Thus, if Democrats were really committed to avoiding a government shutdown, they could have supported the CR, kept the lights on in Washington, DC, and kept their powder dry for a few weeks before making their stand.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) fell from grace when he made the call that averted the last looming shutdown earlier this year. He seems determined not to once again be seen as the Democrat leader who caved to the GOP – especially with the threat of being primaried by progressive firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York House Democrat with designs on Schumer’s Senate seat.
“We Democrats want to end this shutdown as quickly as we can,” Schumer claimed during a recent Senate debate. “But Donald Trump and Republicans need to negotiate with us in a serious way to fix the health care premiums crisis.”
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Republicans in the upper chamber needed 60 votes to pass the CR and prevent the government shutdown. At this point, they have just two Democrats and one independent willing to get the bill to President Trump’s desk. They will need four more.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) doesn’t seem optimistic. The government shutdown is now 14 days old, having begun on Oct. 1, and he fears it could become one of the most drawn-out ever. “We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history unless Democrats drop their partisan demands and pass a clean, no-strings-attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers,” Johnson said at an Oct. 13 press conference.
What no one should lose sight of, though, is that Congress has a duty to craft and pass 12 appropriations bills (as of 2007). According to the Constitution, the US Treasury is not authorized to allocate any federal funding without congressional approval. So, partisan politics aside, the all-too-frequent dramatics over funding that cause these constant government shutdown fights show that members of Congress are too willing to put partisan politics ahead of their constitutional duties.