The federal government shutdown that began at the stroke of midnight on October 1 wasn’t an accident, a matter of miscommunication, or the result of congressional leaders getting behind on their paperwork. Both major parties went into it with eyes open, having for their own reasons spurned the negotiations that usually head off these destructive events at the last minute. It would be naive, then, to expect the shutdown to end quickly or simply.

Democrats have a fairly elaborate list of demands they want met before voting en masse to reopen the government. Republicans simply want it to reopen so that they and the Trump administration can continue to deploy their virtually unlimited power over federal policy, personnel, and spending. Democrats know their ability to interrupt appropriations with a Senate filibuster is their one and only source of leverage over national policy until the midterms, when they hope to break the GOP trifecta. Republicans know their policies as reflected in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are relatively unpopular and are eager to cast the opposition as reckless extremists willing to damage the country to pursue their woke socialist dreams.

Both parties go into the shutdown mostly united and fully prepared to spin, spin, spin, with Democrats focused on expiring Obamacare premium........

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