Republicans and President Donald Trump stand to win in the court of public opinion, as their liberal counterparts will bear the blame for blocking funding.
How a government shutdown may impact you
The federal government is on track to shut down unless Congress passes a stopgap spending bill before its deadline.
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Democrats have decided to enter their fight era.
As they try to refurbish their reputation and lagging poll numbers, party leaders have decided that causing a government shutdown is the way to go.
Good luck with that.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have refused to back down on costly demands they want included in a continuing resolution backed by Republicans to keep the government funded for the next few weeks. Democrats want to extend Obamacare subsidies, among other unlikely wishes.
Democrats may think their tough talk will earn them points come the 2026 midterm elections, but I don’t think it’s going to work out the way they envision.
Republicans and President Donald Trump stand to win in the court of public opinion, as their liberal counterparts will bear the blame for blocking funding.
And Democrats are inadvertently helping Trump fulfill one of his campaign promises of trimming the size of government – something he started at the beginning of 2025 with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
Perhaps he’s forgotten, but Schumer voted in March with Republicans to prevent a shutdown and federal workforce cuts. The Senate Democratic leader got maligned by progressive lawmakers for his vote, but he defended it this way: “Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have wide-ranging authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff members with no promise they would ever be rehired.”
Guess what? That’s still true.
Trump stands ready to fire ‘vast numbers’ of federal workers
Trump warned ahead of the midnight Sept. 30 deadline that his administration was ready to slash jobs and programs if Democrats blocked the funding plan. Downsizing the federal government is something 61% of the country agrees on, a January Ipsos poll found. And given that our national debt is marching quickly toward $38 trillion, savings must be found where they can.
The president is right to use any opportunity to trim costs, including a shutdown.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people and cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told reporters. “They’re taking a risk by having a shutdown.”
Russell Vought, the director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, has said that permanent job cuts – not just the usual temporary furloughs – are on the table during this shutdown. In a memo, the OMB directed agencies that will run out of funding to prepare “reduction in force” plans.
“Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown,” OMB wrote in the memo, placing full blame on Democrats. “With respect to those Federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out.”
Since he returned to office, Trump’s efforts through DOGE to downsize the more than 2 million federal civilian workforce will lead to an estimated 300,000 workers leaving their jobs by the end of 2025, according to White House officials in August.
The Democratic-led shutdown could speed up the pace and scope of the job cuts.
Shutdown hypocrisy, anyone?
Let me spend a minute pointing out the glaring hypocrisy congressional Democrats are flaunting right now.
Democratic leaders used to be very against using the threat of shutdowns before they decided they liked them.
Sen. Schumer himself was once among that number. In 2013, he chided Republicans: “You are not going to get us to give in to extortion. You are not going to take, as hostage, millions of innocent Americans and succeed in getting us to do something you want, and we don’t, and they don’t.”
The White House recently compiled a long list of Democrats who are on record having spoken out about the “dangers” of shutdowns. Here are a few:
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, in 2013 — “There is a time and a place to debate health care, just like there is a time and place to debate energy policy and immigration and education ‒ but not when the funding of the federal government, and all the lives that are impacted by it, hang in the balance.”Sen. Schumer, D-New York, in 2024 — “Passing a clean (continuing resolution) is important for two main reasons: First, passing the CR, of course, will avert a harmful and unnecessary government shutdown. No reasonable member on either side ‒ Democrat or Republican ‒ wants a government shutdown.”Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, in 2024: “A shutdown solves nothing, but hurts everyone.”
I guess it’s just Republican-led shutdowns they don’t like.
Democrats may pat themselves on the back for bringing the government to a halt, but in the end, they just handed Trump a win.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques