Then why is there a shutdown if they can just do what they want and votes don’t matter?
Authoritarian lizard brain. Authoritarians love going through the rituals of legitimacy. They’ll hold sham elections, hold show trials, make obvious lies to justify their actions because going though the motions satisfies them. It doesn’t matter to them if it’s fake or that other people see through it; what matters is the ritual.
Which I why I expect them to fix the election rather than call it off. Calling it off means they don’t get their ritual faked election.
Well, they cant really. An election is coming up in 2026, which the Dems were expected to win the House back. That is why Texas played games with gerrymandering. But the Repubs cant afford to lose the House.
I still don’t understand. All Leave for Federal Employees is cancelled in a shutdown.
It’s true about absolutely all bills whatsoever. Republicans have all of the power. What they want to happen is what’s happening.
Yes, the Democrats genuinely have the minority in all branches of government. I’m at a loss as to how anyone can think that the minority can accomplish anything that the majority doesn’t want.
Because they want a shutdown. Republicans have been saying for nearly my entire lifetime that they want to drown the government in a bathtub. And now they’re doing it.
Democrats aren’t being blamed, according to polling. And they shouldn’t be. Not only do Republican control everything, and could end the shutdown by themselves any day they choose, but this White House is refusing to follow congressionally-appropriated budget laws. If the White House won’t even follow a budget law, why on Earth would Democrats agree to a continuation of budget laws that have been ignored?
Thanks for clearing that up. I still don’t understand what you describe of your situation, but that is not necessary. This thread is not about your personal leave/financial situation.
I’m sure you are stressed. There was a front page article in this morning’s paper, saying 730k workers are working but not paid, 670k are furloughed, and 830k are still getting paid. Also said some billionaire “gave” the government 4130 mill to help pay military.
I’m one of those who is working without being paid right now.
To restate the obvious, Trump has been waging war aganst the bureaucracy and demonizing federal employees since the election. To put it mildly, being a federal employee has been stressful and confusing since January. But I’m sure that is intended to enhance efficiency! 
Yeah, I don’t know the exact polling numbers but it seems to me that this is one area in which the Democrats have an advantage in messaging: since the Republicans took the blame for all the previous shutdowns, people are predisposed to blame them for the current one. The Democrats could even make positive demands (rather than demands for stopping change) and I’m not even sure it would work out as bad as it normally does for them in other areas.
But, the question is, at what point is a tipping point reached? What specific factor will make enough news for either party to blink?
While I previously thought it impossible, I’m now seeing it easily last into the new year…
Right. Republicans have the power to invoke the nuclear option to forever change the Senate rules from requiring 60 votes that requires the minority to help (compromise), to only 50 votes that requires no minority help to get this simple bill passed (no compromise). This is what we’re saying when we say this. I would imagine, the new bill they put forward once only 50 votes is required would no longer be clean - the simple majority would have all the power and the minority would lose all it’s leverage. I would much prefer a shutdown that eventually gets resolved to that scenario.
The majority does want to reopen the Gov’t and is putting forth bills to try and do it. It’s just simple math. There is a clean bill that is being voted on by the entire Senate that would reopen the Gov’t right now. It needs a handful of Democrats to get it passed, but they are voting nay. This exact situation has happened hundreds of times in the past, and the minority always votes yay to prevent a shutdown. It happened earlier this year - 62 votes (9 Democrats). That’s why I think the minority could get the Gov’t reopened, which is what the majority wants when they put forward a clean appropriations bill that would reopen the Gov’t/prevent a shutdown.
None of this means I don’t think healthcare subsidies are important. It’s just numbers we’re talking about. This situation is about the shutdown/passing an appropriations bill. The Gov’t will not reopen if we pass an ACA subsidies bill.
But to be clear, I think the shutdown is both parties fault. Republicans don’t care about healthcare or it’s costs. They could do something right now to address and help fix that. Two things can be done at once, it happens all the time.
Republicans aren’t even following the budget bills they pass. Why would the Democrats vote for a budget law that is being ignored? This is not remotely what has happened in past shutdown disagreements.