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Government shutdown proves congressional dysfunction

Aren’t you sick of it?

“Suppose you were an idiot,” Mark Twain once wrote. “And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”

If the recent news from the nation’s legislature sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Late September is typically reserved for both parties in Congress to hold each other hostage with a loaded gun, namely, the threat of an impending government shutdown. It’s a lose-lose situation, in which, almost miraculously, both parties seem to walk away unscathed.

Who does the losing then? The American people.

Although last-minute compromises aren’t uncommon in such high-stakes negotiations, both parties seem resigned to a lapse in government funding starting at 12:01 a.m. on October 1, 2025.

Both parties appear resigned to it, and they will almost certainly blame each other for it.

Government shutdowns occur when Congress cannot agree on a funding bill or a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government running after a set period of funding expires. The lead-up to that deadline is rife with opportunities for both parties to leverage partisan demands. In past years, for example, a Republican speaker may have had to compromise on his fiscal responsibility in order to avoid the optics of being responsible for a government shutdown.

This year, the controversy centers around health care, with Democrats refusing to support a Republican-backed funding bill without tax credits for Americans who use Obamacare.

While top Republicans have expressed a willingness to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, set to expire at the end of the year, they argue there isn’t enough time before the October deadline.

“We can negotiate the Obamacare subsidies and reform thereof, but we can’t do it by midnight tomorrow night,” Sen. John Kennedy argued on Monday. “That’s what Senator [Chuck] Schumer demanded, and it’s a very unserious proposal.”

“Chuck,” he added, “wants a shutdown.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, an outspoken proponent of continuing the ACA tax credits, explained he doesn’t “understand what shutting down government has to do with that.”

“My message to [the Democrats],” he said, “is like, ‘Hey, I will work with you on all of those things. I think there’s a lot of common ground, but let’s leave the government funding out of it.’”

Democrats counter that they cannot trust the GOP to keep its word once they lose their leverage from the impending shutdown, pinning the impasse on the president’s unwillingness to compromise.

“It’s now in the president’s hands,” Minority Leader Schumer alleged. “[Trump] can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want.”

Similarly, former speaker Nancy Pelosi, accused Republicans of pushing a “partisan bill that causes health care premiums, copays and drug prices to soar.”

Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Trump and other Republicans on Monday to hash out their “very large differences.” Jeffries reported that the president appeared receptive to the Democrats’ message about health care. However, the meeting ended without a deal, and both sides emerged pessimistic about their chances of breaking the stalemate before midnight on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Trump conceded a shutdown seemed “probably likely,” noting that Schumer and Jeffries refused to “bend even a little bit.” Although early polling data suggests that Republicans would receive more blame than Democrats (38%-27%) if the government closes, the president projected confidence in an interview with Politico that the people will “see what’s happening: the Democrats are deranged.”

Raising the stakes in an already tense standoff, he also threatened mass layoffs if Congress fails to reach an agreement.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate gaveled in for a final attempt to approve the Republicans’ CR, with Majority Leader John Thune predicting a vote around 5:00 p.m. EDT. The measure requires 60 votes to pass.

Update: Around 6:30, Schumer spoke from the Senate floor, urging his colleagues to vote against the bill, signaling a resolution to the funding crisis remained unlikely.

“It does nothing — absolutely nothing — to solve the biggest health care crisis in America,” the senator from New York alleged about the Republican proposal.

Update: Voting concluded around 7:20. With 55 voting for and 45 against, the bill fell short, leaving less than five hours before government funding lapses.

“This makes no sense to me,” Sen. Jerry Moran reacted after the vote. “Every city council or commission, every school board, every local government office in my state passes a budget and then lives within that budget every year. Every local unit of government at home can figure this out, and the United States Senate is failing one more time.”

WATCH:

As the legislature continues to barrel towards a shutdown with no compromise in sight, Congress’s approval rating will likely continue to crater, bolstering the need for an Article V convention to impose limitations on an institution that refuses to limit itself.

Through Convention of States, the nation’s leading bipartisan, grassroots Article V group, the American people can do what their elected officials in Washington clearly won’t: crack down on reckless deficit spending, place term limits on career politicians, and shrink the power and jurisdiction of the federal government. Congress cannot even keep its own lights on, let alone solve the nation’s most pressing crises. It’s time for us to act.

This is a breaking story. Stay tuned for updates.

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Created:	2025-09-30 21:56 GMT
Updated:	2025-10-07 07:00 GMT
Published:	2025-09-30 21:00 GMT
Converted:	2025-11-11 12:06 GMT
Change Author:	Jakob Fay
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