Comment: Bizarro World shutdown has GOP defending government

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 1, 2025

By Nia-Malika Henderson / Bloomberg Opinion

It’s Bizarro World in Washington. Democrats are standing firm. And Republicans are arguing that they are the great defenders of the government they’ve spent months gutting. A shutdown looks increasingly likely and could be in effect by the time you read this.

Whether it lasts days or weeks, a shutdown is going to be a test of will and narrative for both sides. For Democrats, the question is how long minority leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer can remain united, with Jeffries playing the lead. For Republicans, at issue is whether they can convince Americans that they actually believe keeping the government funded and functioning is actually worthwhile; a decidedly un-Republican message, particularly in 2025, the year of DOGE.

Switching up their political message will be a hard sell, given how Republicans have railed for years against government programs. But they are trying.

“If they shut the government down, not only are troops unpaid, federal workers and all the services that everybody relies upon, but the WIC program, the nutrition program, Women, Infants [and] Children … that program will not be funded,” said Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after a meeting at the White House with President Trump. “FEMA won’t be funded. We have hurricanes off the coast of the United States right now. This is serious business. You have mental health services, all that funded by the government, would stop.”

But Republicans cut federal funding for Medicaid, the largest single payer of behavioral health services, by $1 trillion over 10 years, reducing access to mental health services for millions.

Three million women and children could lose access to WIC benefits because of the GOP’s “big beautiful bill,” according to the National WIC Association.

And Trump said in June that FEMA could be eliminated by December 2025. The agency has already faced a raft of staff cuts.

So “keep the government open” is a new and contradictory message for Republicans. In contrast, Democrats are advancing a line of argument that they have espoused all year.

“We are fighting to protect the health care of the American people in the face of an unprecedented Republican assault on all the things, Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, Republicans are closing our hospitals, nursing homes and community based health clinics and have effectively shut down medical research in the United States of America,” Jeffries said to Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC. “Clearly, Donald Trump and Republicans know that they have a very weak position because they are hurting everyday Americans, while continuing to reward their billionaire donors. Just like they did in that one big, ugly bill with tax breaks.”

In Virginia, that bill spurred the closure of three rural health clinics, according to the operator. More than 300 rural health clinics around the country are predicted to close as a result of the legislation.

Republicans need six more Seante Democrats to back their budget deal; Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman has already signaled that he is a yes vote. The shutdown deadline was at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The Senate will have voted on two proposals Tuesday, but neither is expected to pass. The House, which passed a bill that would keep the government open until Nov. 21, is in recess until Oct. 7.

New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is set to hold a “shadow hearing” on Tuesday afternoon to highlight the coming price increases for Americans who have insurance under the Affordable Care Act if the subsidies are allowed to expire. Democrats have staked out their position around the subsidies, something that some Republicans are open to.

Hanging over the fight is a deep level of mistrust, with no apparent off-ramp in sight. In July, Republicans approved and Trump signed a rescission package that clawed back $9 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public radio, a maneuver championed by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.

“If you are a Democrat, even just like a mainstream Democrat, your predisposition might be to help negotiate with Republicans on a funding mechanism,” Representative Steve Womack, an Arkansas Republican who sits on the appropriations committee, told Politico. “Why would you do that if you know that whatever you negotiate is going to be subject to the knife pulled out by Russ Vought?”

For his part, President Donald Trump seems rather disinterested, leaving the messaging to Vice President J.D. Vance and posting a fake anti-immigrant video of Jeffries and Schumer’s press conference after his meeting with legislative leaders. Trump, who has wielded his power like few other presidents, holds the record for the longest shutdown, at 35 days beginning in 2018. What happens next is largely up to him.

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.