"Democrats shut down the government"
Republicans hold the majority... hello?
Republicans hold the majority... hello?
A simple majority could be challenging if the government is formed via coalition, but if you have any examples where 1) a single party formed government and 2) a simple majority was the only requirement to pass a budget and 3) a budget failed to pass… then enlighten me by all means!
Edit: At least there is required more than simple majority for some things - as there needs to be compromise (consensus in society). But we see now the flaw that ruling party does not care about compromises.
There’s nothing really stopping a government with simple majority control across all branches from doing away with the filibuster and ramming the budget through except internal party politics.
Right, each house of the US legislature starts the session with a >50% vote to re-adopt a slowly mutating package of rules that it used last time and has carried forward for decades, defining how work is scheduled, what committees exist, how seniority is calculated, who gets the nice office with the window, etc.
This leads to the "nuclear option" of a special >50% vote to remove the underlying rule which imposes the larger vote-margin for certain situations.
There's lots of instances of our government requesting dissolution of the Houses following failure to secure votes, but in most cases they're for things other than operating expense bills, taken as proxies indicating the government does not have the confidence of the House to continue to act. Since failure to secure a bill is grounds for dissolving Parliament, it's not likely to be used for political grandstanding here.
I’d probably argue for an exception on that one, given the Whitlam government didn’t have a senate majority… but at the very least, I feel like a single case in the last 50 years is pretty supportive of my argument. The US government is on the verge of shutdown so often these days that I wonder how many people are desensitised to the situation!
EDIT: wow, what a mess!
(And despite the grandstanding, they still agreed to pass supply bills to allow the public service to operate!)
We are not a parliamentary system, and elections happen on a fixed schedule. Unless Congresspeople die or resign, this is the Congress we are stuck with until the midterm elections late next year.
The Republican Party has made it painfully clear over the past decade that they care more about winning than governing. The initial stages of this were when they vowed not to let any of Obama's priorities pass, to "make him a one-term president" (in their own words).
They have to win, and they have to punish the loser.
- US Conservative Majority who makes policy ...
When Republicans hold the majority Democrats can't do anything because Republicans don't let them.
The Affordable Care Act came out of one of the only recent years they had the House, Senate, and White House.
Republicans have held thr majority for 3 years of trumps 5 so far. What does he have to show for it? I'm genuinely asking: what benefit has he provided to the people wit that unilateral power?
Trump also appointed the judges that got Roe overturned, a huge win for his constituency.
Democrats certainly don't approve but Republicans don't approve of the ACA so, if that's the bar, neither did anything of significance.
Okay, I ask again. What benefit has he provided for the people? Did the jobs come back? Is it safer to walk on the streets? has land value increased? Are groceries less scarce?
Border patrol seems to have long forgotten what the end goal is for the americans, and no one can seem to answer thta question anymore (for what I see are clearly obvious reasons).
>Trump also appointed the judges that got Roe overturned
Same question. Is illegal abortion improving the lives of everyday citizens.
>but Republicans don't approve of the ACA
Same question. Where's that money going that benefits the americans?
This is the whole issue. We can't point to lives being improved, only fears that were manufactured by the same rich elite being quelled. A society powered by fear isn't a democracy.
You don't have to answer it here. I just really want people to think about themselves for once (ironically enough) and really ask what is wrong in their lives, instead of projecting what's wrong with everyone else. If your biggest problems are "other people exist and I don't like them", you must have a very cushy life. I envy that.
And no, I do not understand. They can't be pro-babies and then try to hide the Epstein files. That shows how far their principles really go.
If I thought abortion was murder, I'd be very happy that murder was illegal now. It would improve my life knowing that babies weren't being murdered. Is it really difficult for you to understand that?
Regarding Epstein, the fact that Democrats suddenly decided they gave a shit about Epstein after years of making fun of fringe Republicans for pushing the conspiracy way beyond what any evidence shows is bald faced politics.
>the fact that Democrats suddenly decided they gave a shit about Epstein after years of making fun of fringe Republicans for pushing the conspiracy way beyond what any evidence shows is bald faced politics.
Here is the latest example. Instead of addressing my point you decide to deflect and attack. You may not be a Trump supporter, but this mentality fuels MAGA. If you don't want to be called a duck, stop quacking.
We're not even talking about politics anymore, you're just trying to instigate a flame war here, with me. Let's not break site guidelines, please.
>Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.
>Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.
Because that's not a benefit. You just described the government taking more money from me.
Nothing is actually improved in my life, or your life, or anyone's life.
People have gotten so brainwashed that they're legitimately arguing that what's good for them doesn't matter. What matters is how many random people they don't know they manage to hurt.
Unbelievable.
> Nothing is actually improved in my life, or your life, or anyone's life.
How arrogant. It's not up to you to decide what improves people's lives. That there are people who are so unsympathetic to others makes my life worse.
It upsets me, genuinely. It gives me very little hope that there will be an end to the infectious othering being promulgated by politics.
You can believe anything. You can believe the Earth is flat, I don't care.
> How arrogant. It's not up to you to decide what improves people's lives.
You're right, it's not up to me. Its up to reality.
Things getting worse for other people don't improve your life. That's not an opinion. That's not something I made up.
That's just how the world works.
Also, sympathetic? Really?
You want me to be sympathetic of you being not sympathetic? How short sighted and downright delusional do you have to be to not see the contraction in that?
Obviously a lack of sympathy isn't a position that deserves sympathy. Otherwise, what the fuck are we doing here?
Denocrats are voting against continuing the current budget that they passed while Joe Biden was president.
I mean, do you understand how many pages and details there are in a federal budget, do you think it's plausible that an incoming administration wouldn't make hundreds of changes from the budget of an administration of the opposite party? That's a plausible scenario?
If my ssn is screwed with which I've paid into for decades ... because of interest on debt and other basic financial mismagement ... there's gonna be push back.
The overreach of the right is building cases for nyc next lefty mayor (likely) and Sanders, aoc, Robert reichs of the world btw ... too far left can have its own other problems. We don't need that either.
We are in serious need of competence and getting the basics done right for the right reasons.
While i could go on at length about trump's own rank stupidity we all must see the root cause is an instiutionally corrupt and incompetent congress. That power vacuum is filled by trump now.. but it's congress that bears the ultimate responsibility. Democrats are not criminally so flagrant or culpable but democrat policy and no street smarts didn't help. They are a very weak compeitor.
Trump's "big beautiful bill" makes a lot of those painful cuts. But it also keeps them from taking effect until too late in 2028 to affect the next election. Between now and then, the standard Republican line can be, "Democrats told you that all this will be cut. Have your benefits been cut?" They get to use that in 2026 and 2028. The cuts will have arrived by 2030, but the bill will be old news. There will be a new controversy. And people's opinions of the bill won't change.
This is all on purpose.
So we're effectively cutting the program budget by 25% what it was in Obama's last year - and that's after kneecapping it several times legislatively WRT things like the individual mandate and before going into the rapidly rising inflation we're seeing this year leading into that decade.
Do y'all actually hear yourself or what?
Also: it's not JUST the cutting that's the problem.
We're doing these cuts and getting NOTHING in return. Literally nothing.
Do you know how much money we're saving? -2 trillion dollars. You are actually paying to lose money. Its legitimately unbelievable just how shit this fiscal policy is.
The money the US (that's us folks) spend on medicine is crimally stupid. Heck I had doctor in laws.. one runs medstar in dc both of who have nothing nice to say about the finance/insurance side of medicine.
Now, I hasten to add let's not throw the baby out with the bath water: doctors and nurses are generally people who want to help through science, and that's a good thing.
Medicare and Social Security aren't affected by the shutdown, nor are they subject to cuts.
At this point, the root cause analysis leads to a highly efficient right wing media scape. Efficient because it’s given up on accuracy, and optimized on narrative effectiveness. Trump has a 60%+ approval rating amongst republicans right now, down from 77 in June July (iirc) and even higher in march.
There is no healing a wound, if the source of aggravation is constantly present.
It is also hard to categorize it as a wound, if all Fox and the right media ecosystem is doing, is simply exercising their right to free speech. They just happen to be in lock step with their party, and they’ve spent decades aiming to fill seats, and ensure bipartisan leaning politicians get ousted.
None of this is obviously wrong or illegal, it’s simply focusing on the rules as opposed to the spirit and the norms.
They are “winning”, against science, norms, public opinion and more.
This is the mountain that has to be climbed, and most people are still under the impression that this is business as usual, or that this is simply the pendulum of history moving in the opposite direction.
If you think that any of the names you mentioned are remotely as far left as the current administration is far right, you have been swallowing propaganda whole.
The salient points are just two:
- extremes make extremes and neither is good for the US
- congress needs competent technocratic solutions to budget, debt, and other things in the practical realm of running a government.
Pretty boys on tv talking s** means nothing. The fiest 40 minutes of the breakfast club is the problem.
Which would be more salient if there were, in fact, an extreme left in the US.
Think about this for just a minute: What would extremes on both sides look like?
On the left, it would likely look like a platform of jailing or murdering all billionaires, confiscating the wealth of everyone above, say, $10M and redistributing it to the populace, nationalizing all major businesses, etc.
On the right, it would likely look like a platform of jailing, deporting, or murdering all non-white people, enforcing a specific view of Christianity on everyone, and redistributing wealth from the poor to the wealthy.
One of these sounds a hell of a lot like the platform of one of our major parties, and it sure as hell isn't the Democratic Party.
This budget has veered sharply away from Biden's budget.
Meanwhile, what power might this give him that he hasn't already seized without resistance from Congress? He's taken spending power and partially claimed taxation power already. He's been illegally firing people his entire term so far, often en masse. So what's the "more power"?
The house has a majority; republicans control that.
The senate requires 60 votes in order to control which the republicans dont have. So the democrats absolutely can and have shutdown the government.
They think it's better for them politically to keep blaming the Democrats than to take responsibility for their own choices. I really can't blame them, they have made some pretty bad choices recently.
Back in normal times, the Democrats and Republicans would have been able to negotiate something, because everybody assumed the president would obey whatever budget they passed. But now even if they negotiate something, the president just cuts whatever he doesn't like, and the Republicans in Congress won't hold him to account.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/30/politics/fact-check-trump-fre...
Same with his lie that there are liberal groups funding people like the Utah shooter. It's complete bullshit and he knows it.
He is one of the most sleazy people in politics right now, and that's saying something.
It's really not hard to find this information. All the major news sites are covering it.
But about your last paragraph: A post is written once, but read many times. If you make your readers look for the information, then N people have to do searches. If you search, it only has to happen once. So it's much more efficient for the post author to do so.
And if you don't when you're contradicting someone else, and neither of you supplies evidence, then it looks like "he said, she said". If the evidence is on your side, show it.
We don't spend federal dollars like Medicaid or Medicare on illegal immigrants. We literally just don't.
If you think we do, remember: we don't. That doesn't happen. You are misremembering. That has never happened.
If someone tells you that is happening, remember: they are wrong. They are lying. They don't understand what they are saying.