The current federal government shutdown is now officially the longest in history. As of Wednesday, the government has remained shut for 36 days. The previous record was held by the shutdown that lasted for 35 days from December 2018 to January 2019.
Before government funding expired on October 1 of this year, House Republicans passed a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government open at current spending levels through November 21.
Senate Democrats have refused to vote to pass the CR unless it includes a full list of demands totaling more than $1 trillion. The most expensive and controversial item is a permanent extension of the “temporary” Obamacare premium subsidies passed as part of a Biden-era spending bill in 2022. The subsidies, which were supposed to be a temporary COVID-19 relief measure, would cost more than $400 billion over the next decade alone.
The Senate requires at least 60 votes to pass most legislation, including spending bills. Thus far, only three Senate Democrats have crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans to reopen the government. On Tuesday, Democrats voted for the 14th time to block the CR.
It’s also worth noting that the funding levels in the CR are the same as those passed during the Biden administration. Senate Democrats have voted to extend that CR no less than 13 times under Presidents Biden and Trump, but are now refusing to pass it again unless their demands are met – despite the fact that they lost last year’s elections in resounding fashion.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called out Democrats on Tuesday for effectively holding the government hostage, which is now causing major delays at airports and preventing Americans from receiving services like SNAP benefits.
“This past weekend, Americans traveling to weddings, funerals, vacations, and meetings faced significant flight disruptions at airports across the country because of staffing shortages,” Leavitt said. “On Sunday alone, more than 5,000 flights traveling to and from U.S. airports were delayed. Since the Democrat shutdown began, four times as many staffing shortages have been reported at air traffic control facilities compared to last year.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned that if the shutdown extends into next week, the Federal Aviation Administration may have to begin shutting down certain sections of U.S. airspace due to safety concerns, a situation he says would lead to “mass chaos.”
“I hope that Democrats come to their senses and end this shutdown. I don’t even know what they’re asking for,” Duffy said. “I have no idea – what is this shutdown over? I don’t know. Do they want to negotiate? I don’t know what they want. They say they have leverage by this shutdown, but they’re getting leverage by way of hurting the American people.”
On October 31, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) union – which represents nearly 20,000 air traffic controllers – encouraged Democrats to pass a clean CR to reopen the government.
NATCA President Nick Daniels explained in the union’s statement that he “supports any measure that would end this shutdown and pay our members.” He said that refusing to reopen the government could have dangerous consequences.
“During the shutdown, these professionals are required to oversee the movement of the nation’s passengers and cargo while many are working ten-hour days and six-day workweeks due to the ongoing staffing shortage, all without pay,” Daniels said. “This situation creates substantial distractions for individuals who are already engaged in extremely stressful work. The financial and mental strain increases risks within the National Airspace System, making it less safe with each passing day of the shutdown.”
NATCA is not the first prominent union that is normally friendly to Democrat interests to push for Democrats to join Republicans in passing a clean CR. As AMAC Newsline previously reported, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) union called on Senate Democrats to pass a “clean continuing resolution” just a few days prior to NATCA. The AFGE represents more than 800,000 federal workers and notably endorsed Kamala Harris in the presidential election last year.
America’s four largest airlines have also called on Democrats to reopen the government. In late October, United, Delta, American, and Southwest airlines all urged passage of a clean CR.
Democrats have ignited outrage on the left and the right for referring to Americans suffering as a result of the shutdown as “leverage,” indicating that they are intentionally inflicting pain on families in a cynical attempt to extract political concessions from Republicans.
However, there are some signs that the stalemate may be thawing, and Democrats could be looking for an “off-ramp” from the fiasco. As Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday, enough Democrats could strike a deal with Republicans for a separate vote on extending Obamacare premium subsidies in exchange for reopening the government. That vote could come as soon as later this week.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
More damn money for the freeloaders of this country! Democrats know full well that the freeloader crowd is their biggest constituency! I’m so sick of the federal government taking control of everyone thru this cat and mouse crap! Government is just TOO BIG! If we could ever get government back to its constitutional size then America will be great again, cuz the people will be free to solve their own problems with more money in their pockets!
As far as I’m concerned, the demonrats engineered this and next election cycle will reap the wrath of the voting public. They’re incompetent idiots! Get rid and vote out the demonrats!! Get some moderate representatives in office people!!
We need to vote OUT ALL THE DEMONRATS. They don’t give a crap about the people, just for themselves. And there should be term limits on ALL POLITICIANS….2 TERMS, NO PENSIONS.
The Dems OWN this all day 1 & prior shutdowns too
Sadly I doubt the mainstream media rarely if ever refers to the shutdown as the “Shumer Shutdown” and only hears “The Republican Shutdown” since the left lies with the ease healthy people breath.
The Democrats are using the shut down to black mail America. It is not working!! Instead, it is black mailing the working class American!! I have to say as a retired person on social security, as long as I receive my monthly direct deposit, it has almost no affect on me!!!
And what’s so annoying is that Schumer the shister will likely get his way, and ILLEGAL ALIENS will get free healthcare at the expense of tax-paying American citizens.
The election results in NYC, NJ and VA were very depressing. Democrats just lie and lie and people seem to get their news from the View.
Yadda, yadda, yadda, the voters still blamed us for shutdown.
It’s not only schumer,he is taking the brunt of this.It’s not jeffris,it’s the deep state bottom feeders that align with”dirty georgio soros”and his cult.
I really thought the Republicans were NOT going to cave this time. How naive!!
I was right in my assumption that the Democrats are delaying and continuing the shutdown because they had certain expected “wins” that would occur for certain positions. Now the question remains what stalling factors will they propose to do for the remainder of the year—after all, every thing changes as of the beginning of the new year with some new players in place of the present members. More of whom who are the extreme side of the argument and will refuse to negotiate unless they get their way. It will be a very simple matter of just refusing to call the members to come in to discuss the issues—plenty of excuses why —Veterans Day —Thanksgiving weekend—all the different holidays that occur in December and the fact that both Congress and the Senate are already off and on leave from December 15 through January 6th. So Schumer is probably going to stall any chance of discussing anything for as long as he can.
I may not agree verbatim with everything the media likes to blame on the current situation but I do know that every member of Congress and the Senate is getting a paycheck and they haven’t been doing their jobs adequately and I am tired of hearing that they only have to be accountable to do legislation 180 days of the year and think bring loudmouth rhetoric speakers is acceptable while scores of federal employees who have to report to work are not getting paid. That excuse that they will receive all missed pay in back pay doesn’t pay today’s bills. Don’t blame Trump Congress & Senate —if you are playing the chicken game to see who can flinch first. You are proving nothing by these actions.
The Republicans own the WH and Senate & speaker Johnson wants to vote to open up and then deal on healthcare as is long ways away. It seems like Trump campaigned first term to replace Obamacare with the greatest healthplan ever & did not , and now Johnson cannot answer any questions on what Republicans want to do with healthcare.
Republicans are more responsible for this shutdown than the Democrats & that is all that we hear from the Republicans.
The two longest govt. shutdowns in history are now owned by Trump.. And ujnday it sounds like Trump wants to get rid of the filibuster before opening up again & that is bad as the Republican party can pass everything in their favor. Our founding fathers created three branches so that our system had checks and balances to prevent one party from running the government. And Trump has told Republicans not to meet or deal with Democrats while govt is down & so it appears that the elections yesterday were a sign that voters do not like the current Republican agenda.
alan jamison is scum for using a pen name to post crap articles filled with lies