Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blunt admission on Newsmax’s American Agenda — that he “feels bad for the American people” as the shutdown drags on — should land like a punch in the gut for anyone who still believes Washington works for everyday Americans. The shutdown is real, it’s painful, and conservative leaders on Newsmax have been sounding the alarm that Democrats are wielding this crisis for political leverage, not to solve problems.
Let’s call this what it is: a manufactured crisis by the party that would rather score headlines than keep federal services running. Republicans in both chambers passed stopgap measures, but Senate Democrats have repeatedly refused to support clean funding while demanding more government giveaways, forcing Americans to pay the price. That’s the basic, unforgivable calculus playing out in real time.
We should feel sympathy for federal employees and families hit by furloughs, but sympathy without backbone is meaningless. Conservatives who defend the country’s workers while refusing to cave on reckless, permanent expansions of entitlement spending are doing the hard thing — holding the line for long-term solvency instead of short-term political theater. Newsmax guests from the Hill have laid out the choice plainly: reopen now and negotiate later, or let Democrats weaponize funding to force unwanted policy changes.
Tommy Tuberville’s frustration echoes a deeper, populist anger: Washington has grown comfortable breaking things and blaming the other side instead of governing. It’s time for Republicans to take that anger and turn it into policy — stopgap protections for essential services, reforms that prevent future shutdown brinkmanship, and a promise that lawmakers will not collect a paycheck while the government is closed. The American people deserve accountability, not excuses.
Patriots know the difference between temporary pain and permanent surrender; we must back leaders who fight to rein in runaway spending and defend American taxpayers. If Democrats want to play political games, conservatives should expose the consequences loudly and relentlessly, making sure voters remember who shut down services and why. The next election should be a referendum on competence, common sense, and respect for hard-working Americans.
