The federal government is still “shut down.” The scare quotes are necessary because the government is not actually shut down; it still continues to collect taxes, enforce Federal law, including immigration law, and facilitate things like air travel. This is why you likely have not really noticed the shutdown.
Unless your career involves the Federal government in some way, life goes on. Your local police still patrol the streets, and water continues to come out of the tap. Still, the shutdown is now in its fourth week. There is no end in sight. We are in this situation because the Democrats want us to be in this situation. Republicans in the House passed a clean continuing resolution that would have kept the government funded through Nov. 21. Every Republican but one in the Senate has voted for that bill multiple times. Every Democrat but three has voted against that bill multiple times.
The Democrats do not object to anything in that bill per se; it merely extends the funding levels that were set back when Joe Biden was President and the Democrats had a majority in the Senate. Most of the Democrats in the Senate actually voted multiple times for those funding levels. Rather, the Democrats object to what is not in there. They want to extend “temporary” subsidies for health insurance premiums purchased on Obamacare exchanges. Those subsidies were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Republicans are willing to negotiate over some form of an extension, but they just want to do it after funding the government. Democrats, on the other hand, view government funding as “leverage” for extracting as many concessions as possible from Republicans.
And so we are at an impasse.
At its core, this issue all goes back to the folly of passing Obamacare in the first place. The Democrats in 2010 thought that they could mandate that health insurance cover more and more items, while throwing ever larger subsidies at insurers, would somehow lower healthcare costs. Something closer to the opposite is true, and the Democrats are now faced with the prospect of Obamacare requiring more and more taxpayer funding to live up to its false “affordable” moniker.
Yet, cracks are already starting to form in the Democrats’ seemingly united front. At least three Democrats have already voted with Republicans to fund the government. Just recently, the largest Federal employee union called on Democrats to reopen the government without preconditions. The problem? The energy in the Democratic Party comes from those who demand maximal resistance to Trump and Republicans, regardless of the issue. For these lawmakers, if Trump and Republicans are for it, it must be opposed. So what should be done?
NEW US BOAT STRIKES IN EASTERN PACIFIC RAISES DEATH TOLL TO MORE THAN 50
Put simply, Republicans in Congress should take their argument to the people. America’s finances are in terrible shape. Our spending and debt are out of control. We are $38 trillion in debt. Republicans need to admit as much. They need to take action now, while we still have options on how to choose our own path. If we wait, those options vanish, and we will be forced to confront our debt crisis under terms dictated by others. Cutting the deficit requires ending the constant shutdown brinkmanship that plays on emotion.
Fortunately, people possess great common sense. I hope this current spending fight reminds them to insist that Washington get our fiscal house in order. Democrats should reopen the government, and Congress should debate policy on the merits, not hold basic government functions, like paying the FAA, hostage to partisan leverage. It’s time to act like adults and face the real problem of unsustainable debt that threatens our children’s futures.
