The Schumer Shutdown Cometh

<![CDATA[At Midnight Eastern on Tuesday night, unless there's a breakthrough, meaning Senate Democrats cave, the federal government will shut down for the sixth time this century. In four of the previous five occasions, the shutdown lasted a couple weeks or less, Only once, in 2019, were non-essential federal workers furloughed for longer than a month. Logic would dictate that this shutdown, if it happens, would be very brief, but logic is not one of the primary drivers leading Democrats to the brink this time. With Republicans controlling the House and Senate, albeit with the narrowest of majorities, normal business is ongoing. Budgets have been passed in both chambers, and while delayed, the appropriations process, is well underway in a welcomed return to regular order. The House passed the appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2026 on Agriculture, Defense, Energy, and Veterans Affairs. There's a little more work to do, but the House has by and large done its job. Over in the Senate, on August 1st, the upper chamber passed a three-part package that funded Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and the Legislative Branch. Due to the backlog on executive and judicial appointments, with Democrats going to the mattresses and clogging up time for every single nominee before Leader John Thune and the Republicans reformed the rules to remove the cloture requirement off non-controversial appointments and allow for bloc voting, the Senate has run out of time while the finishing touches on the remaining appropriations bills are negotiated in committee. In a sane world, it's a no-brainer. Pass a temporary continuing resolution to lock in spending at existing levels for a couple of weeks, or as long as you need to in order to finish next year's package, and you're done. Not this time. Not this president. The Democrats have to oppose what they supported, because it'll help Trump. Democrats used to be against shutdowns. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, was against them multiple times in recent history. ]]>