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“The U.S. Senate on Monday approved a compromise that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, breaking a weeks-long stalemate… The 60-40 vote passed with the support of nearly all of the chamber's Republicans and eight Democrats, who unsuccessfully sought to tie government funding to health subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year. While the agreement sets up a December vote on those subsidies, which benefit 24 million Americans, it does not guarantee they will continue…
“The deal would restore funding for federal agencies that lawmakers allowed to expire on October 1 and would stall President Donald Trump's campaign to downsize the federal workforce, preventing any layoffs until January 30. It next heads to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson has said he would like to pass it as soon as Wednesday and send it on to Trump to sign into law. Trump has called the deal to reopen the government ‘very good.’” Reuters
The left is divided.
“[Democrats] managed to hold out and keep the government shut down until past November 1–the date when the open enrollment period for the ACA marketplace began… Premiums for vulnerable Americans around the nation doubled or even tripled. The sticker shock was shared across social media and began to take its toll. Polls show that a strong majority of Americans favor extending the ACA premium subsidies…
“On the question of whether the Democrats should refuse to approve a budget until those subsidies are extended, a strong majority of Democrats and, importantly, a narrow majority of independents agreed. Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating hit new lows, and his efforts to play hardball—including refusing to fund SNAP—stood in stark contrast to his lavish Great Gatsby party and his fixation on his golden ballroom. In short, Democrats were winning the messaging war… Why choose now to throw in the towel?”
Jay Kuo, The Big Picture
“Shutdowns are an opportunity to make an argument, and the country was just starting to pay attention. If Trump wanted to cancel flights over Thanksgiving rather than keep health care costs down, I don’t see why Democrats should save him from making his priorities so exquisitely clear.”
Ezra Klein, New York Times
Others argue, “There was, in fact, a strong moral case for ending this shutdown. The Democrats’ decision to back down, however painful, will save tens of millions of poor and working-class Americans who had lost food stamps from going hungry. Millions more travelers will be spared chaos at airports. Federal employees will no longer have to pay mortgages and bills without their salary…
“Stories of families going without food stamps would, [some Democrats] hoped, shame Republicans… But [their] goal was always a long shot. Jim Manley, who once worked for Senator Harry Reid, told The New York Times yesterday: ‘I never could figure out how you could ever get Republicans to vote for the health care extension.’ For those many Democrats who claimed they wanted to battle on, what, then, was their end game?”
Michael Powell, The Atlantic
“The ethics in this situation are blurry — the cause of protecting health care access is noble, but so is the cause of protecting hungry Americans. And while the Dems were faring a bit better than Republicans politically, this fight was always going to get ugly…
“Worst of all for Democrats, strategically speaking, is that this likely rules out the possibility that the party will be able to leverage a government shutdown to try to secure a policy extraction ever again during Trump’s presidency. Trump has observed that enough Democrats will crack under enough pressure. And he’s demonstrated, as plain as day, an indifference to Americans’ suffering, even if it costs him in approval ratings, in order to secure a political win.”
Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC
The right is critical of Democrats’ strategy during the shutdown.
The right is critical of Democrats’ strategy during the shutdown.
“[Progressive activists] demanded that Schumer play this game of budgetary chicken while having no real leverage. They learned nothing from previous GOP shutdowns, which demonstrated the futility of fighting a president by taking federal workers and beneficiaries hostage. Schumer tried to warn them about that futility in March, and progressives launched an intimidation campaign in response…
“Schumer wasn't among the eight Senate Democrats to vote to end cloture, and then also to vote for the bill in the final floor vote. You'd have to be a moron, however, to believe that Schumer didn't arrange that outcome directly and personally. All eight Senate Democrats who flipped won't face voters in the upcoming midterms, which is hardly a coincidence… To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Schumer is the worst strategist in the Democrat Party, except for all the others.”
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
“The Democrats accomplished nothing with the 40-day shutdown they imposed on America except the infliction of pain on millions of innocent people. The deal cut with Senate Republicans includes a new continuing resolution that funds the federal government through Jan. 30, 2026… It is essentially the same deal Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) offered Democrats weeks ago…
“Why take the same deal now that they rejected last month? The answer is partisan politics. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) admitted to reporters, ‘I was so focused on the Virginia elections, I wasn’t in this discussion on healthcare to see how dug in they were.’ In other words, centrist Democrats did not want to depress turnout by caving on the shutdown before Election Day. But now that Democrats secured big wins in Virginia and New Jersey, at least some of them felt free to do their jobs and open the government.”
Editorial Board, Washington Examiner
“At the beginning of the shutdown, the Democrats spun the wheel, and the bouncing ball landed on ‘health care.’ They just as easily could have picked immigration, climate, or LGBTQIA+ policy… They maintained it was so imperative that Republicans extend forever Obamacare subsidies first passed in 2021 and then re-upped in 2022 under Joe Biden — without a single Republican vote — that it was worth shutting down the government over…
“The Democratic demand was so extravagant, and the bad faith so obvious, that the GOP wasn’t going to cave… Progressives are livid, but isn’t that always the case? In the Trump years, to be progressive is to feel an implacable sense of impotence and rage. This was the real reason for the shutdown — it was a way to give vent to an unreasoning hatred of Donald Trump. Democrats believed that the moment, as Otter famously said in Animal House, required a ‘futile and stupid gesture,’ and acted accordingly.”
Rich Lowry, National Review
