GannonFan wrote: ↑Thu Oct 30, 2025 7:53 am
kalm wrote: ↑Wed Oct 29, 2025 8:04 pm
Tapper is right. It’s a choice of both parties. Dems are actually showing some backbone and taking a stand on exorbitant health insurance premiums.
They're not really taking a stand - there's really no efforts being undertaken to address the real issue, i.e. Obamacare doesn't work. Closing down the government for more than a month demanding that the government spend more and more money to cover the fact that Obamacare doesn't work isn't backbone or taking a stand - it's political recklessness. We're still going to pay everyone who wasn't working, so we waste money there with no output to show for it. If they extend this further it will hurt the folks that are still working, who can't get side hustles to cover the gaps, and in some cases we may not being paying SNAP benefits to the folks that really need it to get food on the tables. Shutting down the government as a negotiating tactic never worked for the GOP in all the cases before this when they tried it, and the it's not working for the Democrats who tried it this time. At the end of things, Obamacare continues to be exorbitantly expensive and we don't have a solution in place on how to change that.
The only thing that could be considered a success out of all of this would be a personal one for Schumer - when all of this is done, if he doesn't have a legit primary contender then he will think the shutdown was a roaring success. For the rest of us - for the folks who had to stretch money to make ends meet, for the SNAP families that had to find other means to get food on the table, and for the country to still have no answer on how to address skyrocketing costs of Obamacare, this was all just a waste of time.
But Chuck gets 6 more years of proximity to power and legal insider trading for his stock portfolio so at least he's happy.
Bingo. The Donks are losing their liberal allies in the Fed unions and MSM. This thing ends by the end of next week (Nov 10) after the election. The donks will try to tie the likely governor victories in 2 blue states and Mandami the Commie in NYC as some type of victory as cover to end this. Even the lib WaPo editorial board is calling for this to end.
A turning point in the government shutdown
Piecemeal bills are a waste of time. Just fund the whole government.
One reason the partial government shutdown has dragged on for nearly a month is because most Americans have felt no discernable impact on their daily life. That’s starting to change. This weekend, federal food stamps are scheduled to stop going out. Around 42 million people, or 1 in 8 Americans, receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
This pain point, combined with three other dynamics, should help hasten an end to the shutdown as early as next week by making Democrats blink.
Second, Democrats are favored to win most of next Tuesday’s off-year elections. If they prevail in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races, as well as the New York mayor’s race, Democratic leaders could save face by claiming that the people sent a loud message to President Donald Trump. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are both New Yorkers who fear the Mamdani wing of the party.
Schumer has allowed the shutdown to drag on because he’s worried about fending off a primary challenger in 2028, and he’s still smarting from blowback he got from angry liberals after he agreed to fund the government this spring. Electoral wins can offer a pretext to claim vindication, or at least quietly give permission for a few of his members to break ranks.
Third, federal public employee unions, a core Democratic constituency, are losing patience. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 800,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said in a statement Monday that the shutdown is unacceptably hurting its members: “It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today,” said AFGE National President Everett Kelley. “No half measures, and no gamesmanship.”
Kelley’s message shows why it’s untenable for Democrats to insist on a piecemeal approach to fund certain programs, such as food stamps, while keeping federal workers furloughed. Air traffic controllers, for instance, just missed their first full paycheck of the shutdown, even though they’re required to keep working.
Senate Democrats mostly stuck together last Thursday to block a bill that would have ensured the troops and other categories of essential employees keep getting paid, but now they’re insisting on a standalone bill to keep SNAP funded. They’re also accusing Trump of not tapping into emergency funds to keep the payments going, even as they’ve criticized him for diverting funds toward programs they care less about…
… Negotiations can always fall apart, but the calendar could help: Both chambers are supposed to be out on recess the week after next for Veterans Day, which might help induce a deal by next Friday.
The right answer is to reopen the government with a clean funding bill, ideally for a full year, to get food stamps flowing and federal workers back in the office, and then have a debate about ACA subsidies. Democrats openly acknowledge that they refuse to do this because it would mean giving up their leverage. If they persist, it could mean families start to go hungry.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... overnment/