🔗 Share this article

The federal government is now officially closed.

Starting on Wednesday at 12:01 AM Washington time, government operations exhausted its funding.

Agencies and departments designed to protect consumers, workers, and investors are currently non-operational, along with museums and national parks.

The majority of government employees are going without pay – as many as 750,000 may face temporary leave – even staff mandated to stay at work, like air-traffic controllers or members of the US military.

Certain mandatory expenditures, covering programs like Social Security and Medicare, will proceed, although checks could be delayed. Work on the new White House ballroom will continue uninterrupted.

A shutdown reflects a government in chaos.

Having experienced two shutdowns firsthand, one when I was secretary of labor. It’s hard for me to describe the fear, frustration and chaos that ensued. I recall spending the first day consoling employees – many in tears as they headed out the door.

There have been eight shutdowns since 1990. Four of those have occurred under Trump’s administration.

However, this closure is distinct.

To begin with, it results from a choice by Trump and Senate Republicans in July to approve Trump’s massive legislative package (which I call the “big ugly” bill) without any Democratic votes.

This was possible due to the Senate’s “reconciliation” process, which allowed the big ugly to get through with just 51 votes rather than the normal 60 required to overcome a filibuster.

The final tally was a squeaker. Every Senate Democrat voted against the bill. After three Senate Republicans sided with them, JD Vance was called in to break a tie. Certain Republicans boasted about passing it without Democratic support.

The big ugly fundamentally altered the priorities of the United States government. It cut about $1tn from healthcare programs, including Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, meaning that health insurance premiums for tens of millions of Americans will soar starting in January.

The bill also reduced nutrition aid and environmental safeguards, while bulking up immigration enforcement and cutting the taxes of wealthy Americans and big corporations.

At that time, Republicans required no Democratic votes. But this time, Republicans couldn’t use the arcane reconciliation process to pass a bill to keep the government going.

Now Democratic Senate votes were essential.

Yet keeping the government going meant keeping all the priorities included in the big ugly bill that all Senate Democrats opposed.

Thus, Democrats demanded restoration of Medicaid and ACA cuts before agreeing, so health insurance premiums won’t soar next year.

Even with that concession, the Republican bill to keep the government going would retain all the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations contained in the big ugly, along with all the cuts in nutrition assistance, and all the increased funding for immigration enforcement.

There’s a deeper irony here.

As a practical matter, the government has been partially closed for over eight months, since Trump’s return to office.

Trump and his inner circle, such as Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget, and previously Elon Musk, have readily shuttered disliked government segments – such as USAID.

They’ve also moved to fire, furlough or extend buyouts to hundreds of thousands of federal employees performing duties they disregard, including staff at consumer protection and public broadcasting agencies.

They’ve impounded appropriations from Congress for activities they oppose, throughout the federal system.

At the shutdown’s outset, Vought announced that the administration was freezing $18bn on infrastructure funds for New York City (where Democratic leaders reside).

These actions are unlawful, but courts may not intervene in time to stop widespread harm.

Vought threatened to permanently fire more federal employees unless Democrats supported government funding. But nothing stopped Vought from doing it before the shutdown, and the shutdown offers no extra leverage.

In fact, the eagerness of Trump and his lapdogs over the last eight months to disregard the will of Congress and close whatever they want of the government is another reason Democrats should have held firm.

If Democrats had approved funding, what assurance was there that Trump would maintain operations?

Democrats finally have some bargaining leverage. They should use it.

Should millions lose health coverage in January due to unaffordable premiums, Trump and his Republicans will be blamed.

The responsibility lies with Trump and Republicans regardless – it’s part of their big ugly bill – but now, in the fight over whether to reopen the government, Americans will have a chance to see Democrats standing up for them.