October 3, 2025
Three, four, five…six.
We are going to for sure have six days – a full week of a government shutdown. But Lisa – today is only Friday – day three.
Yes – you’re right. Today is day three – but the Republican leadership in the Senate just sent everyone home for the weekend. Yes – you heard that correctly, with no deal in sight, tons of federal workers furloughed – our military members and essential federal employees working with no pay — the Senate Majority Leader decided to send all of the senators home until Monday – and yes — *they* are still getting paid. For the record in the midst of all this shutdown chaos – the House Speaker has also kept the House out of session this entire week. There have been zero votes in the House this week and next week’s House schedule is unclear. That means the very soonest we could possibly get out of this government shutdown would be Monday – and that is shutdown day six.
Now — I’m going to tell you something that might frustrate you. What’s the saying again? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result? Well, what’s been happening in the senate this week is *that*. Remember I told you in this video yesterday that a spending bill to reopen the government requires 60 votes to pass in the senate? Well – all this week – the Senate Majority Leader John Thune – a Republican from South Dakota – and the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer – a Democrat from New York have decided their grand strategy to get this government back open is to just put the exact same bills on the floor for a vote that keep failing. They did that on Tuesday, and on Wednesday and they did it again today. The Republicans keep putting up the House passed continuing resolution and the Democrats keep putting up their version which includes the House passed continuing resolution and adds the affordable care act subsidy extension and the restoration of the Medicaid funding that the Republicans cut in the big beautiful bill. Both of those bills keep failing over and over and over again. Instead of saying clearly this is not working – let’s have some kind of compromise – and put up another bill that can get 60 votes – both sides are like no – it’s my way or the highway.
So – that’s where we’re at. I wish I had better news. Maybe by next week. These lawmakers can get it together and get us out of this mess that is if the house comes back to work and if the senate can stop this cycle of insanity.
