Opinion / Fact Checks
Democrat Obstruction: The Sole Culprit in the Avoidable Government Shutdown
What began as a tool to prevent hasty decisions has evolved into a partisan weapon, enabling Democrats to derail a simple, bipartisan funding measure and plunge the nation into its longest government shutdown.
Tommy Flynn
November 8, 2025 - In a congressional system designed for deliberation, the filibuster stands as a Senate rule that allows a minority of senators—often as few as 41—to block legislation supported by the majority. By threatening endless debate, it forces opponents to invoke "cloture," a vote requiring 60 senators to end filibustering and advance a bill. This supermajority threshold empowers the minority party to halt proceedings unless 60 votes materialize, regardless of broader public support. What began as a tool to prevent hasty decisions has evolved into a partisan weapon, enabling Democrats to derail a simple, bipartisan funding measure and plunge the nation into its longest government shutdown.
The House of Representatives passed a clean continuing resolution (CR) on September 19, 2025, funding federal operations through November 21 at current levels—a straightforward extension avoiding new spending or policy changes. Yet Senate Democrats, leveraging the filibuster, have blocked it 14 times as of November 4, rejecting cloture motions and stalling progress. This obstruction stems not from disagreement over government functions but from insistence on attaching billions in enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies as a non-negotiable rider. The clean CR contains no such provision, representing the plain will of the House majority to maintain essential services without partisan add-ons.
These subsidies, enacted as temporary relief during the COVID-19 pandemic under the 2021 American Rescue Plan, were explicitly designed to expire at year's end. Democrats themselves framed them as short-term aid, tied to economic recovery, with no mandate for permanence. Extending them now would balloon costs by $350 billion over the next decade, per Congressional Budget Office estimates, without addressing underlying ACA flaws. Far from reducing healthcare expenses, the subsidies shift burdens to taxpayers, subsidizing premiums for millions while masking systemic inflation. As a mere line item unrelated to core government funding, their inclusion in a clean CR—devoid of Republican priorities—exposes Democratic tactics as deliberate leverage, not fiscal necessity.
This shutdown is unequivocally the Democrats' creation, a self-inflicted wound born of filibuster abuse and refusal to honor the temporary nature of their own legislation. They alone hold the power to end it with a simple cloture vote, yet choose prolongation to force an extension that contradicts the subsidies' sunset clause. The human cost—delayed SNAP benefits, furloughed workers, delayed veterans' benefits, and strained national parks—falls squarely on their shoulders.
The ACA itself underscores this pattern of Democratic overreach. Passed in 2010 via reconciliation to bypass Republican opposition, it secured zero GOP votes in either chamber, with all 178 House Republicans and 39 Senate Republicans voting against it. Democrats rammed it through amid fierce protests, ignoring warnings from Republicans like Sen. Mitch McConnell that it would "explode costs" by mandating coverage without curbing provider rates. Predictions proved prescient: premiums doubled from 2013 to 2018, per Kaiser Family Foundation data, and family deductibles rose 55% under the law by 2020. Republicans forecasted these hikes, citing mandates that inflated administrative burdens and insurer risks, yet Democrats dismissed them as partisan fearmongering.
Today, Democrats evade this history, blaming Republicans for ACA cost spirals while blocking a clean CR to preserve subsidies that perpetuate the cycle. They ignore that the law's architecture—individual mandates, insurer bailouts, and regulatory red tape—drove the very inflation they now decry. The subsidies, far from a fix, merely delay accountability, transferring taxpayer dollars to prop up a flawed system without reforms.
Democrats can terminate this shutdown instantly by allowing the clean CR to pass, honoring the expiration they authored. From the ACA's partisan birth to the subsidies' sunset, the filibuster's exploitation, and the CR's repeated vetoes, blame rests solely with them. Their strategy prioritizes ideological entrenchment over governance, leaving Americans to bear the consequences of a manufactured crisis.