Government shutdowns occur when Congress and the Administration don’t pass a new budget or a “kick-the-can-down-the-road “Continuing Resolution” (CR) that just keeps the old budget in place. Normally there’s high drama on the last night, right up to midnight, when usually but not always everything magically comes together. There was a month-long shutdown in the first Trump administration, and it was a clear reminder of how disruptive they can be because of how much we rely on so many government services that we take for granted.
This time the drama ended much earlier (around 6 pm last Friday night) because Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) chose not to use the filibuster to block the House-passed CR from being considered by the Senate, which meant that only a majority vote would be needed. Not surprisingly, the Republican-majority Senate passed the House measure, and the president later signed it. Shutdown averted.
But that didn’t end the drama, and in fact just started it for Sen. Schumer and the Democrats, who were deeply divided on this strategy. Most thought they should have blocked the ability to vote with a filibuster, but he and several colleagues maintained that a government shutdown would have been multiple times worse than the very bad bill that was passed since a shutdown would give President Trump and Elon Musk unlimited power in many respects that the CR does not.
Regardless of who is right, this event created deep divisions in a party that already took a beating in the last election and seems to still be trying to find its footing before the next one.
It all makes me very glad I’m not in politics.