The U.S. federal government headed into a ‘shutdown’ on October 1 after Congress failed to pass funding legislation for fiscal year 2026 before the September 30 deadline. The shutdown began after Democrats blocked a short-term funding measure proposed by Republicans, triggering the nation’s first federal shutdown in nearly seven years.
Despite Republicans offering a continuing resolution to keep the government open until November 21st, Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, twice voted it down just hours before the deadline, insisting on demands tied to health care spending.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune blasted Democrats for the blockade. “We simply asked Democrats to extend existing funding levels to allow the Senate to continue the bipartisan appropriations work that we started,” Thune said.
“And Senate Democrats said no. Why? Because far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted a showdown with the president. And so, Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats’ partisan interests,” Thune said.
Vice President JD Vance also hit back at Democrats holding the government hostage with claims like taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants. Calling their denials “preposterous,” Vance pointed to Biden-era programs that were canceled under Trump’s first months of presidency.
One Biden-era program had provided illegal immigrants emergency health care at hospitals using taxpayer dollars. “We turned off that funding because, of course, we want American citizens to benefit from those hospital services—not to be taxed and then to have those hospital services go to illegal aliens,” Vance said.
A second program, Vance noted, granted mass parole to millions of illegal immigrants and made them eligible for subsidized health care. “In the ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ President Trump and congressional Republicans turned off that money to health care funding for illegal aliens,” Vance said. “Now Democrats want to turn it back on.”
According to Vance, the Democrats’ latest proposal to reopen the government explicitly restored those benefits: “The first thing that they put out to reopen the government, they actually turned that money for health care benefits for illegal aliens back on,” he said.
Republicans say it is evident that the Democrats are risking federal paychecks, services, and economic stability to secure health care benefits for illegal immigrants. Around 750,000 federal employees will now be furloughed without pay each day, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Judging by reactions on social media, Americans regardless of party affiliation seem to hold the Democrats responsible for this outcome.
The Democrats pointed out that only ‘non-essential’ services are shutting down as a way to justify their move, leading voices on social media to ask why there are ‘non-essential’ parts of the government in the first place.
During a shutdown, government agencies must classify employees and operations as ‘essential’ (which continue without pay but receive backpay later) or ‘non-essential’ (furloughed without pay). Essential services like air traffic control, border security, and military operations persist, but functions defined as ‘non-essential’ halt.
Vance urged Democrats to return to the negotiating table: “Let’s negotiate on all these health care policy issues. Obviously, we’re not going to support health care benefits for illegal aliens, but we will work with them to lower health care costs for American citizens if they’re willing to do so.”
It remains to be seen how far the Democrats are willing to hold out until they sit down at the negotiating table. In the past, shutdowns have lasted around eight days. The longest U.S. government shutdown in history was the 2018-2019 shutdown, lasting 35 days from December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019. It was a partial shutdown caused by a dispute over $5.7 billion in funding for a border wall, with Republicans (under President Trump) and Democrats in Congress unable to reach an agreement.
