Another Continuing Resolution (CR) so government offices stay open. Do our elected leaders not understand the term budget? Congress has only completed this process before the beginning of the fiscal year 3 times in the last 47 years. When our elected leaders cannot agree on the actual money needed and who gets what, a continuing resolution is their fallback position.
This stopgap measure would fund government operations through the rest of the fiscal year. It would slash non-defense funding by $13 billion and increase defense spending by about $6 billion. Democrats opposed the measure due to the non-defense cuts, but also because Republicans refused to include language in the bill putting guardrails on Trump and Elon Musk’s ability to continue dismantling the federal bureaucracy unchecked.
The choice was either vote to approve it or close down the government. The services effected involve the following:
- Social Security and Medicare: Checks are sent out but benefit verification as well as card issuance would cease.
- Environmental and Food Inspection: During the 2013 shutdown, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) halted inspections for 1,200 sites that included hazardous waste, drinking water, and chemical facilities, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) delayed almost 900 inspections.
- National Parks: In 2013, the National Park Service (NPS) turned away millions of visitors to more than 400 parks, national monuments, and other sites.
- Air Travel: During the 2018-2019 shutdown, air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents worked without pay.
- Health and Human Services: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be prevented from admitting new patients or processing grant applications. In 2013, states had to front the money for formula grant programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, sometimes described as “cash welfare”).
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS): In 2013, a backlog of 1.2 million income and Social Security number verification requests delayed mortgage and other loan approvals, and billions of dollars of tax refunds were also delayed.
- In 2013 and early 2018 approximately 850,000 out of 2.1 million non-postal federal employees were furloughed. Furloughed employees are not allowed to work and do not receive paychecks but are guaranteed back pay.
Any CR has a significant impact on everyday people. Who gets the blame. A Pew Research Center said about six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) called the shutdown a “very serious problem.” Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are far more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say this (79% vs. 35%). And within the GOP, 47% of moderate and liberal Republicans consider the shutdown an urgent problem, but only 27% of conservative Republicans do. Americans really don’t like it when the federal government shuts down. Who bears political responsibility for the closed or darkened offices and furloughed workers? The data varies depending on the circumstances of each shutdown.
The Jan. 2018 shutdown showed little public support for the shutdown: 84% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University poll taken during the shutdown said it was unnecessary, with only 13% calling it mainly necessary. The Quinnipiac poll also found that the public spread responsibility for the shutdown among Democrats (32%), Trump (31%) and Republicans (18%).
NBC News review of historical polling data shows that lawmakers have not paid a steep political price in past government shutdowns. It is a point some shutdown proponents have been making including Trump, Musk, and their allies. Would it be any different today had the Senate Democrats not supported the CR and the government shutdown?
The choice was accepting a federal funding extension that empowers President Trump, or risk being blamed for shutting down the government and losing further control over government agencies while the American economy is teetering toward a recession.
Republicans in the House advanced a six-and-a-half month government funding extension that freezes spending at current levels but reallocates it to Trump’s priorities, such as border security and defense, and gives the administration more leeway to make spending decisions. Then the House left town for a 10-day recess.
Democrats are livid at the Trump administration’s slash-and -burn changes to the federal government, and they are under intense pressure from their constituents to fight back. But they also fear the consequences of shutting down the government, both real and political.
A shut down would force many federal workers to stop working and temporarily go without pay. Some Services would be interrupted. A government shutdown would also add to an already chaotic federal government, as Trump and advisor Elon Musk have laid off more than 100,000 federal workers and combined federal agencies without Congress’ approval.
Which party would be blamed for a shutdown is unclear. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed a majority of voters would either blame Trump or Congressional Republicans for a shutdown. But the 2026 midterm elections are well over a year away, making it anyone’s guess whether this moment in the spring of 2025 will be remembered when many other headline-grabbing events are likely to distract from current voter frustration.
This CR would create a lot of pain for the people. It’s bad for farmers, it’s bad for folks on Medicaid, it’s bad for working families. A shutdown would be bad also,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. “Either way, they own this.” Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said earlier this week that he’s worried Musk would have even more control over what would eventually be reopened if the government does shut down on Trump’s watch.
Democrats are facing intense pressure to push back against the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), nominally led by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk, which has been gutting long-established federal agencies and removing thousands of government employees from their positions. ‘I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” Schumer said. “Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon. For Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift. It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda.” Republicans view this process as an effort to force Democrats to support their position regardless of its effect on workers and people. Democrats fear the lack of restrictions on cuts to discretionary spending means the stopgap bill could allow the Trump administration to cut administrative expenses at the agencies responsible for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Democrats view it as extremely harmful to people and prioritize keeping the government running.
Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science told Newsweek: “The problem is that Schumer had no good options. But the worst possible outcome would be for Democrats to be held responsible for shutting down the government. At the same time, Schumer supporting the stopgap bill will only increase turmoil within the Democratic party, and make its members look more befuddled about how to deal with the Trump White House.”
The Democrats had no good choices. They could all vote no. If the Senate Democrats did this, the Republicans would not be able to get past the filibuster, and so the government would shut down. Then the Democrats realized President Trump could cut more programs and reshape the bureaucracy even more under a shutdown scenario than he could if they passed the bill,”
The risk of allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a much worse path,” Schumer wrote. “Right now, Mr. Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock market. He owns the damage happening to our economy. The stock market is falling, and consumer confidence is plummeting. In a shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to reopen and which to keep closed instead of debating the damage Mr. Trump’s agenda is causing.”
Sen. Schumer advised that avoiding a shutdown would be better for the American people and for Democrats as a political party. Currently Trump and Musk are continuing to destroy our governmental institutions. If preventing the CR would result in more turmoil for people and more misplaced power in the Whitehouse, then letting it continue is the better choice. This may be seen as a Pyrrhic Victory for the Republicans. If the economy continues to decline and DOGE stays on its destructive path blame will clearly fall on the Republicans. This may be the better way for Democrats to fight back. The Republicans may pay an enormous price at the ballot box in June 2026.
Phil's Personal Perspectives 