The federal government remains shuttered after a series of Senate defeats that conservatives say expose Democratic obstructionism in stark terms. Senate Democrats have voted against the Republican-led stopgap funding measure repeatedly — a tally Republicans count as 13 rejections — and the impasse has real consequences for federal operations and ordinary citizens.
Republicans pushed a clean continuing resolution that would have funded the government through mid-November, yet the measure failed to clear the 60-vote Senate threshold, losing by a 54-45 margin despite three Democrats breaking ranks to support it. That procedural reality makes clear where the power to reopen the government lies: it takes Senate Democrats to stop obstructing a commonsense, short-term fix.
Now we are watching the predictable human toll of political gamesmanship: SNAP benefits and other assistance programs have been put at risk, with tens of millions potentially affected if Congress does not act. Democrats who posture about compassion cannot simultaneously block emergency funding and demand credit for concern while holding aid hostage to unrelated policy giveaways.
Senate Republican leaders, including John Thune, rightly exploded on the floor over what they call 13 needless votes against reopening — a furious, deserved rebuke aimed at colleagues who insist on tying basic funding to large policy demands. Conservative commentators and Republican lawmakers point out the hypocrisy of a party that routinely backed continuing resolutions in past years but now refuses to allow the government to function unless their maximum-dollar wishlist is met.
What’s astonishing is the scale of the Democrats’ ask: reports say the party is pressing for roughly $1.5 trillion in new spending as the price to reopen, including extended health subsidies and other priorities that go far beyond a short-term patch. That kind of ransom politics is exactly why voters distrust Washington — it’s raw leverage, not governance, and it puts essential services and military paydays at risk for ideological aims.
Conservatives aren’t blind to the need for negotiation, but there is a right way to bargain and a cynical way to hold the nation hostage. Republicans have offered to fund the government at current levels while negotiations on broader policy continue; Democrats’ insistence on a massive, unrelated package before reopening looks like political theater rather than responsible statesmanship.
Leadership means answering the urgent question: will Capitol Hill prioritize governing or political grandstanding? Republicans must stand firm on fiscal responsibility while also pushing to restore services and paychecks immediately, and Democrats should be called out for choosing maximalist demands over practical solutions that keep the lights on and the people paid.
