Democrats Shut Down Government After Voting No on CR
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman (PA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) and Maine Independent Sen. Angus King voted yes.
The government shutdown became official at midnight. (I guess this frees up space for me to write about cats! I know Professor Jacobson will love that!)
— Office of Management and Budget (@WHOMB) September 30, 2025
The continuing resolution needed 60 votes to pass.
The CR failed with a 55-45 vote. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted no, along with most Democrats.
Democratic Sens. John Fetterman (PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine voted yes.
King caucuses with the Democrats.
We all knew Paul would vote no. If you look at the CR, either the Republican or the Democratic way, it would add trillions in debt. On September 29, he said “a shutdown is the least of our problems” if America doesn’t fix her debt problem.
(This libertarian does not mind a government shutdown…obviously…and agrees with Paul.)
I explained yesterday afternoon that health care is why the Democrats voted no.
Fetterman explained his vote:
It’s a sad day for our nation.
Our government shuts down at midnight.
I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government.
My vote was our country over my party.
Together, we must find a better way forward.
It’s a sad day for our nation.
Our government shuts down at midnight.
I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government.
My vote was our country over my party.
Together, we must find a better way forward. pic.twitter.com/lK1gqIIi60
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 30, 2025
Cortez Masto used her explanation to attack President Donald Trump and Republicans, saying they’re already harming Nevadans enough, and a shutdown would make it worse.
The senator stressed the need for a bipartisan solution.
NEWS — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) votes with GOP on clean CR. The vote is ongoing
Her statement: pic.twitter.com/0G8ghbz8XS
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) September 30, 2025
King basically said the same thing, claiming a shutdown would give “Trump the ability to do far greater damage.”
I voted to keep the government open because a shutdown will give President Trump the ability to do far greater damage.
More here ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/MSKbpJxAsj
— Senator Angus King (@SenAngusKing) October 1, 2025
I doubt many of us will notice the government has shut down. I guess I will, since I have to write about it every day! But I won’t miss the government.
This also made me smirk: Trump might fire a bunch of people.
Then again, if you’re considered unnecessary, then why does your job even exist? If the government doesn’t need your job to function, then it should not exist.
I’ve heard it’s illegal to fire people during a shutdown.
However, thousands of workers have threatened to resign.
Me: DO IT.
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Comments
Excellent.
Layoff all federal employees and rehire them as temporary employees. Make them reapply for their old jobs and let go of the slackers.
Interesting collateral damage…. most of the shutdown will affect Blue states and cities more than Reds. Thinking of the D.C. area, Maryland and Virginia. They vote Dem anyway so the major damage is to their Party faithful. No firings…. just reduction of unneeded job positions.
Watch for the “affects minorities” most… since government has preferentially hired a larger proportion of minorities for soooo long….
Democrats are making a big mistake. The public finally realizes how truly unnecessary most federal government programs really are. The usual idiotic shutdown fearmongering just won’t work.
This is not the place to do that, Paul.n silly performative look at me votes accomplish nothing.
During my years of Federal employment I was always classified as an essential employee and so over the years worked weeks during shutdowns while “non-essential” employees complained about not being paid (although they were always paid retroactively so their income was not impacted) and took advantage of the time to travel, visit friends and family or just take it easy. Those of us who worked during the shutdown many times speculated that if non-essential employees were going to be paid for staying home (or going out and about), why weren’t essential employees paid double time? Of course the private sector approach would be to furlough without pay the non-essential employees but that would never be the government way as the politicians won’t risk the ire of the public sector unions.
I don’t have much sympathy for the non-essential government workers who aren’t getting paid. These shutdowns happen regularly. They should know to stash away part of each paycheck because it’s not a question of if the government will shut down but when. “I’m down to my last dollar and I don’t know when I’ll get paid! I can’t buy food!” Sorry, that’s poor planning. Welcome to the real world where most of us can be laid off at any time.
“I’ve heard it’s illegal to fire people during a shutdown.”
So, don’t fire anybody.
Simply eliminate their positions. “We no longer have a requirement for a Third Assistant Bottle Washer.”
Yep. When the agencies provide their list of essential positions and non essential positions then every non essential position is fair game for elimination. Draw up a RIF (Reduction in Force) across the Federal gov’t and implement it. When the shut down ends any employees who were terminated b/c their duty position was ID as non essential or via RIF can apply for any open positions.
The 100K ‘threatening to resign’ are those participating in the Deferred Resignation Program. The DOGE team with OPM offered them a deal; resign, go home and draw pay + benefits till the end of FY ’25. Sept 30 was the last day of their Federal employment.
Interest on the debt paid in FY ’25 was north of $1.2 Trillion. For perspective the DoD budget was about $900 billion. Federal tax receipts were about $5.2 Trillion. So our debt service costs about 133% of our entire Defense budget and takes about 24% of tax receipts. To get to a balanced budget we’d have to limit spending to the remaining $4 Trillion in tax revenue …the problem is we now spend about $7 Trillion. So last year alone we added $1.7 Trillion to the existing $36 Trillion federal deficit. The debt hole and deficit hole keep getting dug deeper.
If this is about raising the debt ceiling again, that’s a bogus problem. The budget is the problem. As long as they spend more than they take in, the debt rises. The debt ceiling just gives you theater moments.
Balance the budget and the debt will stop going up.
This has nothing to do with the debt ceiling. It has all to do with Schumer trying to redeem himself with the democrats by sticking $1.5 trillion in extra spending into the Continuing Spending Resolution that he knows darn well that Republicans would never accept. And apparently didn’t accept.
Actually Congress needs to write and pass an actual budget and stop depending on these Continuing Spending Resolutions to fund the government and then and only then will the debt stop going up.
rhhardin is not entirely wrong. The last time the federal government had a balanced budget was in 2001, when it recorded a surplus of $128 billion.
2001 was the final year of a period of budget surpluses that began in 1998, which included surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $136 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in the year 2000. Prior to 2001, the most recent balanced budget occurred in 1969,
If Congress seriously wanted to work through bi-partisan appropriations in order to produce a budget and avoid a shutdown, why did they take the entire month of August off?
Took it off without recessing, to boot, to screw Trump out of recess appointments.
No back wages for idle Federal employees, would change the dynamics.
Your darn straight it would. No back pay would cause every federal worker to consider voting GOP, too.
Ahead of the vote, Schumer told colleagues a NY Times poll that found 65% of Americans said Democrats SHOULD NOT shut down the government if their demands were not met was biased. Laughter ensued.
https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1973156400571490609
Schumer is just desperate to rehabilitate his image after voting in favor for the last continuing spending resolution backfired on him he’s willing to say the most ludicrous things on the floor of the Senate. Schumer knows it and from the laughter everyone else knows it. Schumer. What a putz.
Full List of Democrats Who Voted For Trump-Backed GOP Funding Bill
Resignations accepted. Please turn out the lights when you leave and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Seems like an odd response from the workers. “I’m taking my ball and going home. Mom!”
“However, thousands of workers have threatened to resign.”
Go ahead make my day. *
*From “Sudden Impact.” One of the all time great scenes in an action movie. Show how to deal with criminals who present a lethal threat to innocent people.
This will be a looooong shutdown. The Democrats right now have nothing to lose (they really couldn’t care less how many federal workers are laid off), and the Republicans want to keep the filibuster. Maybe after a month, the Republicans will get 51 to abolish it.
Shutdown? Fine with me. Shouldn’t this decrease spending?
This is a shutdown? The government rolling on just as before? I am reminded of the old joke about a pack of Congresscritters stranded in the Sahara desert with only one pint of water between them and no hope of rescue. Their solution? Vote themselves each ten gallons of water a day.
There once was a businessman named Earl “Madman” Muntz who was in the consumer electronics business. When he went to the factories to review production products, he would ask the engineers what a particular circuit board does. He then started snipping components one by one until the circuit board stopped working. Then he said that these are the minimum parts required — the snipped ones just waste my money.
Should apply to the federal government as well, no?
Let the MASS FIRINGS BEGIN!!!
the government payrolls were designed to put the black population into the limelight , as much as possible.
and welfare being welfare
it succeeded in crashing the usa economy
no need for the post office
but how many poc will that put out of work!??
you cant be for socialism and be for the usa
Quite seriously, what does a government shutdown look like to the average citizen? I believe that Social Security checks continue to go out, and VA hospitals stay open and SNAP keeps sending money. It’s my understanding that the Post Office keeps working. True that trash doesn’t get collected in National parks, but shouldn’t they be completely closed anyhow?
I have heard that Air Traffic Control may suffer, but hopefully that will finally spur the automation they’ve needed forever now.
What other things will the Average Citizen notice.
“Thousands of workers have threatened to resign.”
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing…”
Gee… can we close the district courts during this shutdown and the federal reserve. Are they essential? Don’t think so.
If a bear farts in the woods of a National Park during a government shutdown, does it make a sound?
The fundamental problem: the federal government spends (approximately) $7 trillion per year on annual revenues of (approximately) $5 trillion. Unfortunately most people can’t comprehend the bigness of a trillion. Millions, billions, trillions, just words. How far back is a billion seconds? Well 31.7098 years which takes you to Friday Jan 14, 1994. How about a trillion seconds? Takes you back more than 30 thousand years to Mon Dec 13, 29,686 BC! Way before recorded history. This the best example, I’ve come across to show how big a trillion is. All made possible through the magic of fiat money and budgetary tricks like continuing resolutions. Voters would never support the taxes necessary to balance the budget. CRs put off the Day of Reckoning making it someone else’s problem. When the day comes, whoever is in power will blame Trump. Trump will probably take the blame for every terrible event for the next hundred years. Should an astroid hit the earth in 2096, Trump’s fault. He cut NASA’s budget. Trump has become the universal enemy similar to Emmanuel Goldstein of Orwell’s 1994, The Europeans will blame Trump too. Should a UFO crash, the pilots will blame Trump.
Yep. Overspending is THE problem. If we simply went back to the FY 2016 spending as the top line for the budget we’d be fine. The spending was $3.9 Trillion in FY 2016 as compared to FY 2025 spending of $7 Trillion dang close to doubling Federal spending in less than a decade.
With $5.2 T in current revenue and interest cost of $1.2 T that leaves $4 Trillion to spend, just over the $3.9 Trillion total of FY’16. Of course that would require some hard choices on what to spend out on. DoD gonna eat up about $1 Trillion. Leaving $3 Trillion. Take out the VA spending, DoD retirement and Federal employee retirement and that’s close to another $1 Trillion gone. Still have $2 Trillion which seems like a lot till we look at the healthcare spending. Even if we discount Medicare the total for Medicaid and CHIP is over $600 Billion.
Leaves us $1.4 Trillion at best. Now got the various special interest lobbyists and their voting constituencies fighting about who gets paid. Not to mention SSA retirement is gonna need an infusion of cash annually from the general revenue budget beginning in 2034 to cover the 23% shortfall in payments.
Free at last /
Free at last /
Thank God almighty /
We are free at last!
I appreciate your friendly banter and frankness, but you forgot to cite your source. Please give credit to one of the most respected civil rights activists in American history, a political philosopher, and visionary who, at the age of thirty-five, was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
I didn’t think I had to. It’s like having to cite “Romeo, O Romeo!”
A shutdown of the Federal Government puts 40% if the government out of work. This shows they are not needed. The rest are at work but not getting paid. The government still pays the bills it needs to. I see no problem with the shutdown.
This morning on the radio it was stated the reason that the dems did not want the CR was that it did not fund the gov to the level that was funded during COVID. And why is that level of funding necessary? AI was not responsive to this question by the way.
The two things the democrats want was making the expiring ACA tax benefits permanent and restoring the Medicaid cuts. There maybe other things but those were the two big items.
I think Rand Paul needs to re-evaluate what his perpose in the Senate is. He is one of one hundred and needs to realize that things only get done as a team. He can take his personal opinions as stuff them but he has to vote with his team for the American people. This CR does nothing new but only gives the lazy bastards more time to work out the details. What does his no vote mean? Is he showing that there should be no CR? Couldn’t he just stomp his little feet instead? He and Rep. Massie think they are the only ones who do not agree on everything that they have to vote for. All members of Congress hate some things in every bill they sign, but they have to work together to get anything done.
He’s supposed to represent his state and not the republicans. Part of the problem with our system today is congress critters representing their party and not their voters. The democrats are absolutely the worst when it comes to this. The republicans are almost as bad.
There were 55 votes of the 60 needed. Paul voting yes would have done nothing except affirm his loyalty to the republicans. In this case I have no problem with his voting no. He may actually have the approval of the leadership to vote no in this case with the caveat he would vote yes if his vote was actually needed.
It is always illuminating when folks call out the very few Senators (Rand Paul) and members of the HoR (T Massie) on their voting against the ‘go along/get along’ DC budget bills. All that ‘teamwork’ has gotten us a $36Trillion+ Federal Deficit and a bill for interest on the debt that’s 133% of the entire DoD budget. We spent a bit more than $1.2 Trillion on interest this year with revenue of $ 5 Trillion. IOW we used over 20% of revenue to pay interest on accumulated debt. FWIW we had total spending of $7 Trillion this year, in FY16 it was $3.9 Trillion nearly doubled our spending in 9 years….with teamwork.