I & I Editorial BoardWe have no idea how the government shutdown, now in its fourth week and the second longest in history, will end, or how. But what is increasingly clear is how badly Democrats miscalculated on this one.
Consider three bits of news from this week:
First, the shutdown isn’t hurting Republicans.
In fact, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that President Donald Trump’s approval rating has ticked up by two points to 42% since the shutdown started. Other polls find it unchanged. The Real Clear Politics average shows Trump’s disapproval at 52%, which is down a point from the day before the shutdown started.
That same Reuters poll showed that the public is mostly split on who deserves blame for this shutdown, which is in stark contrast to past shutdowns, during which the Republicans were overwhelmingly blamed.
Second, the GOP isn’t cowering in fear. “I don’t know what there is to negotiate,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at a meeting with fellow senators at the White House this week. “Open up the government first.” He told reporters that Republicans are “a united team.”
They shouldn’t negotiate because they have the upper hand on messaging. To wit, the Democrats are holding the country hostage because they want to borrow and spend $1.5 trillion on health care for illegals, Obamacare for the well-to-do, and a host of woke programs the general public doesn’t want.
Third, and perhaps most stunning, is a Rasmussen Reports poll also out this week that finds that 51% of likely voters want the government to remain shut down, including 31% who strongly approve of keeping it that way. Only 41% said they disapprove of it continuing.
True, that’s because two-thirds of Democrats want the shutdown to continue because they hate Trump. But this is another example of Democrats’ cutting off their nose to spite their face.
In this case, keeping the government shut down gives the president the opportunity to permanently shrink it, a prospect that appears to delight Trump.
“We have Darth Vader,” Trump said, referring to the head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought. “They call him Darth Vader. I call him a fine man, but he’s cutting Democrat priorities, and they’re never going to get him back. … So, while they thought they were doing maybe bad, maybe indirectly they’re doing good.”
Trump has also managed to find ways to keep paying the military and law enforcement, which has caused Democrats to sputter about how he’s abusing his authority. Or, as Politico put it, “Lawmakers bemoan Trump’s latest power grab: Troop pay.”
Yes, the shutdown is disruptive, but the longer it goes on, the more people (who aren’t on the government’s payroll) will realize that their lives aren’t being affected by it one way or another. As we noted in this space at the start of the current shutdown (see “You Call This a Shutdown“), nearly 70% of the government is on autopilot – and so is unaffected by the shutdown – and much of the rest of what makes up the federal government is waste, fraud, and abuse.
The more people realize this, the weaker the Democrats’ hand becomes. Which, for Democrats – a party built on the notion that a big, powerful, expensive federal government is essential to our everyday lives – is the worst possible outcome.
Our hope is that Republicans maintain their resolve, because the longer the shutdown lasts, the more damage Democrats will suffer. And, in the meantime, Trump will have more time to fire federal workers and shut down federal programs.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
The U.S. House Democrat Whip: “Shutdowns are terrible. And of course there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously, but it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
So, for example, if you depend on SNAP benefits to feed your family – and SNAP is running out this week, they say – then you just need to suck it up, because you and your starving family are leverage.
It isn’t working, but let’s violate Einstein’s rule that insanity is repeating that which hasn’t worked in the past. Of course, it did work in the past; this is just the first and likely only time that the Democrats have suffered from their policy approach to shutdowns.
Thank Donald J. Trump for that. Is there anything he cannot do? Of course, there is. Nonetheless, he has managed to position tons of issues in a way that exposes the Democrats for the anti-Democratic and anti-American frauds they are. How do you get to be on the wrong side of so many 80-20 issues? By being a Democrat, that’s how.
At long last! The quiet part is said out loud…the American people can get along quite well without Big Brother looking over their shoulders. Now they’re considering that ridding themselves of the unneeded government appendages and feathermerchants that have accreted over the generations (it’s far more than 30%, BTW) equals significant savings…enough to make a tremendous dent in a runaway national debt. Not to mention runaway economic growth, individual wealth, and diminished intrusion into personal lives.
President Trump has no fear of backlash from a laid-off civil service — most of the non-DoD elements don’t vote for him, anyway. Let ‘em get a real job now and see how quickly they see virtue in conservative ideals
Bottom Line: The only people affected by the shutdown are the federal drones infesting it. The functions embedded in the Constitution are the only ones actually needed. Too bad for the Dems and RINO Republicrats that they forgot that.
Keep it shut down until Trump has sent most of it packing and Washington is again a deserted swamp.
“nearly 70% of the government is on autopilot – and so is unaffected by the shutdown – and much of the rest of what makes up the federal government is waste, fraud, and abuse.”
There’s TONS of waste, fraud, and abuse is on autopilot too.
Democrats want to spend an additional $1.5 trillion via this short-term extension. That’s over $4,000 for every American man, woman, and child. They’re demanding an express train to bankruptcy.
This article really makes you think about how dependent we are on government services. It’s interesting to consider how life might go on without them for a while. I wonder how many people would actually notice the difference?
I have a wonderful suggestion. Return 10% (an arbitrary number, pick a better one if you like) of Federal Employees to work. Be sure to choose employees that are important; ask the Department Secretaries for a list of names. Fire, totally eliminate the positions, of the 90% not returned to work. Make sure they do not trip over the door sill or get hit in the butt by the door on the way out.
In October 2026, see how things are going by checking to see the the Departments are carrying out their mandated duties. If not, rehire an additional 5% of the terminated members.
Military, law enforcement (broadly construed), medical staff (broadly construed) and other commonsense exemptions will be needed.