Government shutdowns can be political earthquakes that paralyze Washington, DC. But for the economy, shutdowns are often barely a blip.
Whatever economic damage occurs during that time tends to be limited and quickly fixed. Even the last government shutdown – the record-long 35-day shutdown in 2018-2019 – had few long-lasting impacts on the US economy and financial markets.
That could very well be the case again this time around, especially if the looming shutdown proves to be brief. Yet there are reasons this episode could be different – and not in a good way.
The US economy in 2025 looks more vulnerable than during past budget fights. The job market is stumbling, and the Trump administration is threatening even more federal layoffs. A government shutdown would just add more chaos and uncertainty, at a time when there is already plenty of both.
Bullshit. Democrats have no obligation to vote for a bill they had no say in. If Republicans want Democrat votes, they negotiate. If Republicans want to pass it with no Democrat votes, they do away with the filibuster. They want to keep the filibuster but have it be a tool that only Republicans get to use.
Danc is trying out the “if you would just consent, this wouldn’t be rape so it’s really your fault” approach.
Danc never said it was anybody’s fault. There’s going to be a court of public opinion to determine “fault”, and the Lemmy echo chamber will likely have no representatives.
This is such a silly analogy. Do better next time.
You and I can agree on that, but does the majority of the population agree with us?
As I said from the very beginning, this is an issue of public perception.
Lemmy tends to be an echo chamber for liberals. So it is easy to call bullshit and make it sound SO simple what the Democratic Party should do. But Democratic leaders need to deal with a much larger and more varied population. The same population of people that gave Trump a 2nd term. It is not as simple as you say.
Well, you presented it being the Democrats’ fault as a fact, my dude.
It sounds like we generally agree, I’m just saying the Democrats seem to be totally be phoning in on messaging, when the facts are objectively in their favor.
“Fault” implies judgement. I was making no judgement. But it is a fact that democrats are in control of if we shut down or not. It’s for the public to decide who is at fault.
You’re right that Democrats aren’t great when it comes to messaging, but liberals are also much harder to satisfy than conservatives. Which means the leadership needs to walk a much tighter line and do things that aren’t popular with some of the party.
Schumer got a lot of hate on here for not shutting the government down in March, but if you look at public perception, Trump’s approval rating dropped by 10% in the month that followed. If Democrats shut the government down, who knows how the public would have reacted.
I’d argue that Schumer made the right decision last time, and maybe we need to give him some credit here as well. I know that’s an unpopular opinion among other liberals, but I am mostly concern that Democrats take back some sort of control in 2026. And they won’t do it with a fractured base.