Chuck Schumer ended the government shutdown. Make no mistake about it. Republicans needed seven Democratic votes to re-open the government. They got eight. They even got two retiring Democrats who had no reason to walk the plank. The Democratic Caucus made sure the GOP got their votes.

There was absolutely no reason for it. Leave the government shut down. The Republicans offered absolutely nothing for those eight votes. The “promise” of a vote on subsidies for health insurance under the ACA is utter bullshit. There will likely not be a vote in the House ever, and it probably won’t pass the Senate either. The Democrats were offered nothing and took it. SNAP was gutted in the “Big Beautiful Bill,” so don’t tell me they needed to save that either, they’re saving a less than whole program (Which is already going to be a massive, massive problem). As for the federal workers, you make the GOP cave to pay them. They’ll get back pay then. Besides, in saving SNAP and federal workers from temporary pain, they’ve permanently lost a working health care system. It wasn’t worth the deal.

The politics are worse than the policy. Democrats won the 2025 Elections a month into the shutdown. Voters weren’t revolting against the Democrats. There was no price to pay. Not even a little bit.

Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats overvalue the government. There’s no reason to keep it open, no reason to save it. It’s not doing much good right now. Society was not falling apart without it yet. Yes, I know government has a role to play, and it is important to our society working, but that’s in normal times. This idea that this government is as important as it was in say, 2022, is silly. It’s foolish. It’s misguided.

Democrats had the GOP’s backs to the wall. They are unpopular and were ineffective. You tell John Thune and the Senate GOP to either make a real offer or they get no votes. Restoration of the subsidies should have been a bare minimum to talk, not a guideline. Thune could always have just ended the filibuster and funded the government himself. Democrats didn’t need to sign off on this.