The facts
Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown faded Friday. On the third day of the shutdown, another Senate vote to advance a Republican bill to reopen the government failed 54-44, well short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster. House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the chamber would close for legislative business next week.
After the vote, senators headed for the exits, expecting no more votes over the weekend. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “I don’t know how many times you’re going to give them a chance to vote no,” he added that he was flying home to South Dakota for the weekend: “I’ll be available.”
The same three Democratic caucus members, Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman and Angus King, voted for the funding bill again. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was again the only Republican opposed. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, “They thought they could bludgeon us and threaten us and scare us. It ain’t working,”
Democrats are demanding Congress extend healthcare benefits, specifically tax credits boosted during the COVID-19 pandemic for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries warned, “Everyone is about to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles because of the Republican health care crisis. Everyone,”
Trump has called the funding lapse an “unprecedented opportunity” to make vast cuts to federal agencies and lay off workers rather than furlough them. He shared a social media video depicting budget director Russ Vought as a grim reaper. Vought has announced billions in withheld infrastructure funds for Democratic states, and on Friday morning said another $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects was on hold.
The White House briefing opened with the shutdown’s toll: press secretary Karoline Leavitt discussed a report that military families are already seeking food aid as troops go without a paycheck. “This madness must end,” she said. Roughly 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed, losing $400 million in daily wages, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Our take
Day three of this self-inflicted shitshow, and the entire political class has decided that 750,000 people losing their paychecks is a fine backdrop for their pathetic, preening theater. These useless cunts aren't even pretending to govern anymore. They're just acting out their favorite roles in the shittiest play ever written.
Let's start with the Senate, a chamber full of cowards who can't even muster a simple majority to keep the lights on. They held another vote, got their predictable failure, and then immediately scattered like roaches. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a man whose job title is a fucking lie, gave us the quote of the shutdown: "I'll be available." He said this while literally flying home to South Dakota for the weekend. What a profound dickhead. That's the political equivalent of your boss shitting on your desk and then texting you from the airport, I'm here if you need me! No, you're not, you asshole. You're running away from the disaster you helped create.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are playing the same stupid game. Chuck Schumer is out here bragging, They thought they could bludgeon us... It ain't working. Congratulations, Chuck. You won the standoff. The prize is that military families are now seeking food aid because troops aren't getting paid. Hakeem Jeffries is warning about skyrocketing healthcare premiums, which is true, but also the direct consequence of the shutdown he's a part of. These self-important pricks are so busy high-fiving themselves for not caving that they've forgotten the entire point was to prevent a crisis, not win a fucking game of chicken.
And then there's Trump, the absolute cunt-in-chief, who sees this human catastrophe as an "unprecedented opportunity" to fire people. His big contribution to solving the problem he exacerbated is posting a video of his budget director, Russ Vought, as the fucking Grim Reaper. That's it. That's his policy. A meme. While Vought gleefully withholds billions from infrastructure projects, including $2.1 billion for Chicago, because why actually govern when you can just be a petty, vindictive bastard?
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, opened her briefing by detailing the horrific toll - troops without pay, families needing food aid - and then had the audacity to say, "This madness must end." You work in the building where the madness is being manufactured, you stupid fuck! It's like an arsonist calling a press conference to mourn the fire while holding a lit match. This is the whole story: a bunch of overpaid, vain, pathetic children playing with matches while the rest of the country's house burns down. They've abandoned their jobs, and the only thing they're harvesting is a bumper crop of bullshit.
