October 2, 2025
It’s day two of this government shutdown and you’re probably wondering why lawmakers can’t get this government back open? What’s the actual issue?
Well – as you know there’s a lot of blame going around and messy politics involved but neither of those things are facts. That is all spin. You know I only focus on the facts and the fact is – there are several real issues democrats and republicans are fighting about and those issues are what’s preventing the government from opening back up. In the end the issues boil down to two things – healthcare and trust. Let me explain.
As I’ve been reporting for years under every single president– spending bills that keep the government open require a simple majority in the House, 60 votes in the Senate and the signature of the president. If the party in power does not have the votes necessary amongst themselves to get those spending bills passed– it is the responsibility of the party in power to negotiate with the minority party. That means these bills can’t only include priorities of the party in power– a negotiation means some of the things the minority party wants have to be included too. Everyone has to compromise …right?!?!. So – in this case – since Republicans control the House, Senate and White House and republicans only have 53 Senators not 60 — it is the responsibility of the Republicans to negotiate with the Democrats to pass a spending bill to get this government open.
But that’s that hang up — since President Trump took office republicans haven’t really had to do any negotiating with Democrats to get any of their huge legislative priorities passed because one of two things have happened – one – Republicans were passing bills that didn’t require those 60 votes in the Senate so they could use their simple majorities in both the house and the senate to get even their most controversial priorities passed into law. Or two – on bills that did require 60 votes — Senate Democrats just agreed to what the Republicans wanted without any real negotiation at all. That’s exactly what happened back in March when we were having this same fight to keep the government open. Remember Senator Chuck Schumer and several other Senate Democrats just caved and voted for the Republicans continuing resolution that kept the government open. They did that without getting anything in return. No negotiation at all. Because Schumer at the time said it was more important to keep the government open then to fight for their own priorities. Well – when Schumer and the other Senate Democrats did that – they got their asses handed to them by their base. I tell you that story because it’s important context so you can understand why Schumer and the Democrats *this time* are not just simply caving to the same Republican continuing resolution. They don’t want the blow back from their base so *now* – they are digging in and they want something from Republicans in exchange for those seven votes in the Senate.
And that leads me to the real issues here. As I said they boil down to healthcare and trust. Let’s start with healthcare. Republicans want Democrats to just simply agree to a continuing resolution to temporarily keep the government open through November– but Democrats say whoahh – not so fast. If you Republicans want our seven Democratic votes in the Senate to keep the government open through November we want you – Republicans to agree to a permanent extension of the enhanced affordable care act subsidies that help millions and millions of qualified middle income Americans afford their heath insurance. For the record –by law immigrants who are in this country illegally are not allowed to qualify for a-c-a healthcare coverage nor are they legally eligible for these particular subsidies I’m talking about.
Also – Democrats are asking for some of the billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts included in the big beautiful bill to be restored. In this environment that seems like a nonstarter but the aca subsidies may be on the table. And it when it comes to those – lots of you may have missed a huge piece.
As I warned in this video back in July – those enhanced ACS subsidies are expiring for everyone at the end of this year and that means everyone’s health insurance premiums and out of pocket costs are going to skyrocket. You’re probably already seeing that in your renewal notices. Without those subsidies – you are going to be paying anywhere from 15% to 75% *more* for your health insurance premiums. Oh and if you have private health insurance through your employer – you’re not immune from this either. It may not be as large of a price increase – but you’re likely going to see increase too. Democrats want those ACA subsidies extended permanently.
Republican leadership is saying whoaahh—we’re willing to negotiate with you Democrats on this particular healthcare subsidy but holding the government “hostage” is not the right way to do it. Instead — the House Speaker and even the Vice President have said Democrats should hand over the seven votes to reopen the government and then they can have the healthcare subsidy negotiation. And that leads me to the trust issue in all of this. Democrats say they don’t trust Republicans to actually have that negotiation and even if the negotiation does happen and they can come to a deal and pass it into law to keep the subsidies– they don’t trust that the White House won’t then turn right around and send over a rescissions package to cut the funding for the subsidy. Which is exactly what happened to the funding for NPR and PBS and USAID.
At this point – neither side is budging. As of today – Democrats are not changing their minds and Republicans are not going to start negotiating until the government is back open. So — we’re stuck. And there’s no telling how much longer this is going to last.
