To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE


SHARE THIS ARTICLE Printer friendly version of this page

Government Shutdown: 'Cracks Are Beginning to Show'; Senate GOP Leadership Outlines Post-Shutdown Strategy

George Caldwell : Oct 1, 2025  The Daily Signal

"Here's the bottom line: state healthcare programs aren't just funded by state tax dollars—they're heavily bankrolled by Washington. Medicaid is a federal-state partnership, and the federal government typically covers 50% to 75% of the cost. The One Big Beautiful Bill finally closed the loopholes that let states hand out free healthcare to people who aren't supposed to be eligible—like illegal immigrants. Democrats fought to reopen that loophole, and when they didn't get their way, they shut down the government." -Matt Margolis, PJ Media 

[DailySignal.com] On Tuesday night, forty-three Democrats in the Senate denied Republicans the votes necessary to avert a government shutdown. (Screengrab image: via C-SPAN)

But tellingly, at least according to one Senate Republican leader, three senators in the Democrat caucus voted with Republicans.

Democrat Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada both voted to pass the continuing resolution which would extend the spending levels of the Biden administration for seven weeks in order to buy time for the bill-by-bill, bipartisan appropriations process. They were joined by Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats.

"The cracks are beginning to show," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in a press conference after the vote.

"There is bipartisan support for keeping the government open in spite of the fact that [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer is forcing a government shutdown, regardless of the cost, regardless of the consequences to the American people."

The continuing resolution fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage by a 55 to 45 vote, with 43 Senate Democrats opposing the legislation. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, also voted against the bill. Fifty-two Republicans voted to fund the government.

This was the second attempt to pass the continuing resolution. An earlier attempt yielded only one Democrat vote from Fetterman who has previously said that "It is always, always wrong to shut our government down."

But Schumer, D-NY, interpreted the Tuesday continuing resolution vote differently.

"Now two times, Republicans have failed to get enough votes to avoid a shutdown," he told reporters. "They've got to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to come to a bill that both parties can support. They didn't do that in the past. Their bill, they call it clean, we call it totally partisan. There was no input from Democrats."

Since the first announcement of the continuing resolution, Democrats have made hefty demands, including undoing recently passed cost-saving Medicaid reforms, hamstringing the White House's ability to rescind certain federal funding, and extending expiring Obamacare health care premium tax credits, which were enhanced during the previous administration.

Pointing to the fact that the bill was not even written by the current bicameral Republican majority, Sen. John Hoeven, R-ND, has characterized this as a misleading argument.

"Sen. Schumer says, 'Oh, well... there's no Democrat priorities in it.' Well, there's no Republican priorities in it," Hoeven told reporters. "It's a clean CR [continuing resolution], so, I mean, that's a false premise right off the jump. And I hope you're asking him, wait, how does that make any sense?"

Similarly, Sen. Rick Scott, R-FL, accused Democrats of prioritizing "their own trillion-dollar liberal wishlist over what's best for the American people," in a statement to The Daily Signal.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, said that the shutdown is the result of nothing less than animus for the president.

"Make no mistake, Democrats shutting down the government has nothing to do with extending COVID-era insurance subsidies," Tuberville told The Daily Signal in a statement. "Democrats just voted to shut down the government for one reason: Trump Derangement Syndrome. These Radical Leftists are so blinded by their hatred of President Trump that they will do anything to try to stop his agenda."

For now, the Republican strategy will be to continue to bring the bill to the floor until Democrats finally acquiesce.

"We're going to continue to vote on the clean CR that was sent to us from the House," Barrasso previously told reporters before the vote.

He added that "there are not going to be votes between sundown [Wednesday] and sundown Thursday" due to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, continues to make clear he does not believe that he should have to negotiate with Democrats over a seven-week resolution.

"We need to keep the government open. We can talk about whatever else they want to talk about after that," he said after the vote.

On the issue of Schumer's demands for the extension of COVID-era enhanced health care premium tax credits, Thune is also not going to cede any ground at this moment.

"This program, if we did what the Democrats want to do, which is to extend it permanently, it's a $365 billion [cost], so anything that's going to be done is going to have to be done with significant reforms."

Both parties were united in one thing—the claim that their party will win the narrative as the shutdown continues.

Americans "are going to keep demanding that we do something about this, and Republicans are feeling the heat," Schumer said, projecting confidence that Americans would demand some action from Republicans to address a purported health care crisis.

"You have a good number of Senate Republicans and House Republicans, as was mentioned, when they talk to us privately, they say this is untenable," he added.

But on the Republican side, leadership is hoping that, one by one, Democrats will come into the fold.

"We're going to have some more votes, and we'll see where the Democrats come down," Thune said. "I hope we have enough to change their minds so that we can get this government open and responsive to the American people." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Jacob Adams contributed to this article.

George Caldwell is a journalism fellow at The Daily Signal.







SHARE THIS ARTICLE Printer friendly version of this page

To receive daily emails from Breaking Christian News to your inbox CLICK HERE

Other Recent Articles from Breaking Christian News

Supreme Court Rules for Pro-Life Centers: 'The Government Has No Business Harassing Pro-Life Ministries'

President Trump Signs Executive Order Expanding High-Quality Retirement Accounts for Millions of Americans (VIDEO)

Worldwide Implications of the UAE's OPEC Exit

Democrat Activist Texas Judge Rules State Agency Must Greenlight 400-Acre Islamic City Near Dallas

New Footage of Trump Assassination Attempt Released. Here's What It Shows [Video]

MAHA Victory on Capitol Hill as GOP Agrees to Drop Special Pesticide Protections

DOJ Report Reveals Biden Admin's Expansive Religious Liberty Violations and Hostility to American Christians

SPLC's Indictment Prompts Loss of Donations from Vanguard, Fidelity Charitable Programs

President Trump Signs Bill to Fund DHS, Ending the Democrat Shutdown

Evidence Young People Are Turning to Christianity Isn’t Anecdotal; It’s Real

100 Missionaries Deploy to 10/40 Window amid Increasing Reports of Visions of 'The Man in White'

WATCH: Millionaire Tax Critic Says AGO, Dems Played Politics Instead of Protecting Residents

Total Victory: Florida Congressional Maps Are Now Official

Trump, Hegseth Praise US Performance in Iran as Congress Pushes Back; Israel Appalled at London Attack on Jews

Ex-Muslim Flees Iran, Says Jesus Appeared in Dreams to Family Members

May Day Protests are Coming. Urgent Prayers Needed!

Anthony Fauci's Former Senior Adviser Indicted for Role in COVID Cover-up

King Charles III Gifts President a Bell from Hms Trump at White House State Dinner Reinforcing US-UK Bonds

Feds Raid More Than 20 Sites in Minneapolis Fraud Probe

This is a Spiritual Battle over America; Take Your Place Praising God, Our Worship is Warfare!



Search the Articles Archives

Keyword:  
Author:  
Words Posted On:  
Day Month Year



Subscribe to
Breaking Christian News


Follow BCN on Twitter
Are You Praying for Our Government Leaders?
BCN Staff

Steve Shultz
Steve Shultz, Managing Editor
Founder and Owner


Aimee Herd
Aimee Herd, Editor


BCN Plus
Are You Praying for President Trump?
 
 

All articles on this site and emails from BCN are copyrighted property of Breaking Christian News. Permission is given to link to, or share a BCN story if proper attribution is given to both the original writer and summarizer of the story. Breaking Christian News 2005-2019. All Rights Reserved.


Breaking Christian News is a division of Elijah List Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved


Disclaimer: Articles and links, as well as the source articles linked to; do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Breaking Christian News.

editor@breakingchristiannews.com