Republicans are fully prepared to keep the government open.
The bill House Republicans unveiled this week “would keep federal agencies funded through Nov. 21, buying lawmakers more time to work out their differences on spending levels and policy for the coming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1,” according to the Federal News Network. “Republicans said that they were providing exactly what Democrats have insisted upon in past government shutdown battles — a clean funding bill free of partisan policy riders.”
Democrats have said for years that shutting down the government is reckless and irresponsible, even a threat to democracy. They warned that mothers and children would go hungry, police and firefighters would be furloughed, and service members would go without pay. But now, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, it’s Democrats who are threatening to shut it all down if they don’t get their way.
One of the key factors is expanding funding for ObamaCare.
“Schumer says he and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries are united in opposing any legislation that doesn’t include key health care provisions and a commitment not to roll them back,” reports the Associated Press. “He says he believes Republicans and President Donald Trump will be held responsible if they don’t negotiate a bipartisan deal.”
But it’s Democrats and their insistence on expanding a failed health program that’s to blame if Capitol Hill goes dark on September 30.
National Review’s Jack Butler explains, “One of the major failures of Obamacare is that it mandated that every insurance policy cover a specific package of benefits, forced insurers to offer coverage to everybody regardless of preexisting conditions, and limited the amount that insurers could charge older and sicker individuals. The result of these policies was to significantly raised premiums, especially on younger and healthier individuals who were now forced to purchase much more coverage than they needed or go uninsured. Many of them chose to go uncovered, and without the profits generated from overcharging younger and healthier individuals, health insurers had to raise premiums even further.”
In recent years, Democrats have balked at any attempt to provide more choice for consumers or make the program less expensive by cutting back on regulation. What they are willing to do is expand ObamaCare into an even more expensive and bureaucratic program simply to score political points and blame Republicans.
At one time, Democrats enthusiastically supported what are known as continuing resolutions to keep the government funded. As The Hill reports, “Democrats voted more than a dozen times to extend federal funding with short-term ‘clean’ continuing resolutions (CRs) when former President Biden was president and they controlled the Senate, but now they’re drawing a hard line on what ordinarily would be a noncontroversial funding proposal.”
This time around, Democrats are not as unified over whether shutting the government is the best approach. “Senate Democrats are split on how aggressively to use their leverage,” informs The Washington Post. “Some Democrats have said they are open to supporting a stopgap bill so they can keep working on bipartisan spending bills that would set new funding levels for the next fiscal year rather than maintain current ones.”
The Post adds, “Some House Democrats, meanwhile, are skeptical of Schumer after he voted for the Republican spending bill in March. Several of them criticized Schumer during the House Democrats’ caucus meeting Tuesday after Jeffries told them that he and Schumer had agreed to demand concessions on health care.”
Shutting down the government is always risky politically, but thanks to the Leftmedia, it’s Republicans who usually take the brunt of the blame. The continuing resolution needs 60 votes in the Senate, which means Republicans need some Democrat support to prevent a shutdown. Even in the House, the margins are slim.
And the GOP needs to think about how this might all play out in the 2026 midterms. House Speaker Mike Johnson says Democrats will be blamed if there’s a shutdown.
However, Newsweek noted, “[A] poll from Data for Progress found that nearly six in 10 American voters would blame the GOP or Trump for a shutdown, not Democrats. In total, 32 percent said they would blame Trump, while 27 percent said they would blame Republicans in Congress if the government shuts down. Only 34 percent said they would blame Democrats.”
It’ll be interesting to see if Democrats can prevent Republicans from getting the extra votes they need for the resolution. A vote is scheduled for this Friday. Right now, it looks like both sides are digging in their heels, but let’s hope Republicans stand up to Schumer and the Democrats and force them to explain to the American people why they didn’t vote to keep the government funded.
