It's official. We are most likely headed for a government shutdown at midnight tomorrow, as Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer has rejected the Republican proposal to fund the government.

Because even though Republicans control the House and the Senate, they need 60 votes in the Senate to fund the government, which would require seven Democrats to come over if all the Republicans

were in favor. It actually requires eight because Rand Paul is voting no on the grounds that

Republicans are spending too much money. And Rand Paul has a point. Republicans did not really

make any cuts to the budget. Now, they didn't increase spending. Spending normally increases

sometimes by a lot. They didn't do that, but they didn't cut the budget either. They agreed off

the bat to keep funding levels almost exactly the same as they were in 2024. The Republicans

were more than willing to compromise with Democrats. And still, that is not good enough for Democrats who had this to say.

The last thing Americans need right now is a pointless government shutdown.

A shutdown will hurt just about every American.

The truth of this shutdown is that it is actually not about a wall.

It is not about the border.

And it is certainly not about the well-being of everyday Americans.

The truth is, this shutdown is about the erosion of American democracy

and the subversion of our most basic governmental norms.

It's a kind of dysfunction that is not about Democrats and Republicans fighting each other.

It's just Republicans who just can't seem to get their act together so that we do the most

basic, basic job of government, and that is fund it and keep it going.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. That's not what Schumer and the Democrats had to say right now.

That's what Schumer and the Democrats said over many years when they could blame Republicans for

government shutdowns. Back then, government shutdowns were evil and a dereliction of duty

and the end of our democracy and a cause of endless suffering and death.

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