The United States government is now officially closed.
Starting on Wednesday at 12:01 AM Washington time, government operations reached a financial impasse.
Agencies and departments tasked with safeguarding workers, consumers, and investors are currently non-operational, as are national parks and museums.
The majority of government employees are not being paid – as many as 750,000 could be furloughed – including those who are required to remain on the job, like air-traffic controllers or members of the US military.
Certain mandatory expenditures, covering programs like Social Security and Medicare, will proceed, although checks could be delayed. Work on the new White House ballroom won’t be affected.
Government shutdowns signal a system in disarray.
I’ve been directly involved in two, including during my tenure as labor secretary. The ensuing fear, frustration, and chaos are difficult to convey. I remember the first day spent comforting staff – many in tears as they headed out the door.
Since 1990, the U.S. has seen eight shutdowns. Trump has now presided over four.
But this shutdown is different.
To begin with, it results from a choice by Trump and Senate Republicans in July to approve Trump’s massive legislative package (which I call the “big ugly” bill) without any Democratic votes.
They could do that because of an arcane Senate procedure called “reconciliation”, enabling the bill to pass with a simple majority rather than the normal 60 required to overcome a filibuster.
The final tally was a squeaker. All Senate Democrats opposed the legislation. After three Senate Republicans sided with them, JD Vance was called in to break a tie. Some Republicans bragged that they didn’t need a single Democrat.
The legislation drastically shifted government priorities. It slashed roughly $1 trillion from health programs, affecting Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, causing health insurance premiums to skyrocket for millions come January.
The bill also reduced nutrition aid and environmental safeguards, while boosting immigration enforcement and cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations.
Trump and Senate Republicans didn’t need a single Democrat then. But this time, Republicans couldn’t use the arcane reconciliation process to pass a bill to keep the government going.
Now they needed Senate Democratic votes.
But funding the government meant upholding the very bill all Senate Democrats rejected.
Which is why Senate Democrats refused to sign on unless most of the big ugly’s cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act were restored, to prevent premium hikes next year.
Even if Senate Democrats had obtained that concession, the Republican bill to keep the government going would retain all the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations contained in the big ugly, plus nutrition cuts and heightened immigration funding.
A deeper irony exists.
In practice, the government has been partially closed for over eight months, since Trump took office this second time.
Trump and his inner circle, including OMB director Russell Vought, and previously Elon Musk, have had no compunction about shutting down parts of the government they don’t like – like USAID.
They’ve also moved to fire, furlough or extend buyouts to hundreds of thousands of federal employees doing work they don’t value, such as those working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
They’ve withheld congressional funds for opposed activities, ranging across the entire federal government.
At the shutdown’s outset, Vought declared an $18 billion freeze on infrastructure funds for New York City (home to the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and the House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries).
These actions are unlawful, but it seems unlikely that courts will act soon enough to prevent the administration from harming vast numbers of Americans.
Vought menaced further permanent firings unless Democrats supported government funding. But nothing stopped Vought from doing it before the shutdown, and the shutdown offers no extra leverage.
Actually, the eagerness of Trump and his lapdogs over the last eight months to disregard the will of Congress and close whatever they want of the government offers another reason why Democrats shouldn’t have caved in.
Had Democrats voted to keep the government going, what assurance was there that Trump would maintain operations?
Democrats now possess bargaining power. They ought to utilize it.
If tens of millions of Americans lose their health insurance starting in January due to unaffordable premiums, Trump and his Republicans will be blamed.
It would be Trump’s and his Republicans fault anyway – it stems from their legislation – but now, in the battle to reopen government, Americans will have a chance to see Democrats standing up for them.
