PRAGMATIC ISSUES

This is the second major shutdown during a Trump presidency.

Federal workers are locked out. Families are  wondering if paychecks will come. National Parks are closed, or running without the necessary services to keep them open, phones are ringing unanswered, and America now has a government that feels like it’s running on fumes.

At midnight on October 1st, the lights went out, not because America ran out of money, but because it ran out of reason.

The federal government has once again been hijacked by political hostage-taking, and both parties have fingerprints on the trigger.

When Politics Becomes Performance Art

Let’s start with the obvious, Republicans currently hold the House, the Senate, and the White House. That means they had the power  and the responsibility to keep the government open. Instead, they passed a stopgap spending bill that everyone knew wouldn’t survive the Senate.

It was political theater dressed as governance.

Their continuing resolution excluded core Democratic priorities, particularly protections for healthcare subsidies and Medicaid funding. The message was clear, take our version or take the blame.

Democrats, on the other hand, refused to play along and they’re not wrong to demand that health care for millions shouldn’t be treated as a bargaining chip.

But when you refuse to back any compromise at all, you’re not protecting the people you are prolonging their pain.

This isn’t negotiation anymore.

It’s a competition to see who can weaponize dysfunction more effectively.

Who’s Really to Blame?

On paper, the Republicans carry more structural responsibility. They hold the majority, they control the agenda, and they answer to a president who prefers televised brinkmanship over quiet compromise.

But, Democrats share a measure of guilt. In politics, purity often comes at the expense of pragmatism. Digging in on principle feels righteous until 800,000 federal workers are suddenly without paychecks.

Both parties are trapped in a feedback loop of ideological performance.

Republicans want to be seen as slashing waste and standing firm. Democrats want to be seen as defending healthcare and the social safety net. And while they posture for headlines, the American public gets to live through the fallout  furloughed, anxious, and fed up.

The Economic Fallout Everyone Pretends Is Worth It

Every week this shutdown drags on costs the U.S. economy an estimated $15 billion in lost GDP. Agencies that process passports, farm loans, or food aid go dark. Families who depend on WIC the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program are suddenly cut off.

Politicians call it “temporary pain.” But for many families, there’s nothing temporary about missed rent or groceries. When the government shuts down, it’s not Washington that bleeds it’s the rest of the country.

We Deserve Better Than Manufactured Crisis

There’s a grim familiarity to all of this. Every few years, we teeter on the same cliff, pretending that each shutdown is about moral conviction instead of political cowardice.

If this were truly about fiscal restraint or social priorities, Congress would debate those policies outside the hostage chamber of a budget deadline.

Instead, both parties use shutdowns to test public outrage like a lab experiment: how far can they push before we turn on them?

The answer, apparently, is pretty far. Because despite our frustration, we keep electing the same actors, hoping the next act will end differently.

And sadly, it doesn’t.

The Real Crisis Isn’t the Shutdown, It’s the System That Tolerates It

The truth is simple, the government didn’t fail.

The politicians did.

Republicans for setting fire to their own house and calling it fiscal discipline.

Democrats for refusing to douse the flames unless their agenda was passed in full.

And all of Washington for confusing stubbornness with strength.

A functioning democracy isn’t supposed to collapse every time parties disagree.

But in 2025 America, dysfunction has become policy and shutdowns, the new normal.

We deserve a government that governs, not one that performs.