We're now 34 days and change into the government shutdown brought on by Democrat intransigence. Rather than accept a clean continuing resolution that would fund the government until a new spending bill was passed, the Democrats have elected to use government employee salaries, SNAP beneficiaries, and victims of Obamacare as pawns to wring concessions for higher spending from the Republican majority. In fact, on Tuesday afternoon, the Democrats voted for the 14th time to keep the government closed.
The nexus of this shutdown is the Senate's filibuster rule. This requires a bill to have 60 votes in favor of bringing it to the floor for a final up-or-down vote. But very rarely does a parliamentary procedural tactic only cut one way. When the government inevitably opens, the Democrats are going to discover the pain of the filibuster.
The main negotiating point to end the shutdown is a guarantee that the obscene Obamacare subsidies that ballooned the program from 2020 to 2025 will receive a vote. The plan is that in exchange for a promise of a future vote on the Obamacare subsidies, at least eight Democrat senators will vote for the clean continuing resolution.
It is that vote that will bring home the reality that using the filibuster as a tactical weapon is not a great idea.
Any possible extension of soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies will need to get 60 votes, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday as rank-and-file lawmakers close in on a deal that could reopen the government and pave the way for additional heath care talks.
Democrats have privately floated an arrangement for the Senate to hold a vote to extend the subsidies at a simple-majority threshold rather than the 60-vote margin for most legislation. Thune rejected the idea, saying there was “no way” that would happen.
“Honestly, think about what the Democrats are asking us to do here,” he told reporters. “They’re saying it’s going to take 60 just to fund the government, but we want to have a vote on a massive sort of piece of health care legislation at 51.”
It seems unlikely that the Sombrero Boys will be able to muster the votes to ram a humongous, bloated spending bill through Congress.
🚨🇺🇸WHITE HOUSE DROPS HALLOWEEN SOMBRERO MEME EDITION
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 30, 2025
Trump administration continues trolling Jeffries and Schumer with spooky seasonal sombrero edition.
Official government trolling is reaching new festive heights!pic.twitter.com/B4YjT5vBfq https://t.co/HtE08iLQXH
If this strategy, exchanging a shutdown vote for a vote on Obamacare subsidies, pans out, it would give Congress an excellent opportunity to put the atrocious Obamacare program on a sustainable path, if not on the path to oblivion.
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