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Republicans have found themselves in an unusual position when it comes to shutdowns, right?

They have the unquestionable upper hand in the government funding fight.

But the question now is, are they squandering it? Good morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to The Daily Punch, brought to you by Punchable News. It's Wednesday, September 24th, 2025. Let's get into the mix. Here are your Washington headlines of the day. Number one, will Republicans botch the shutdown, showdown? The stakes couldn't be higher. Number two on the ground at the United Nations General Assembly. And number three, Senator John Cornyn rolls out some Texas endorsements. All right, happy Wednesday, everybody. Let's get into it. It is a very busy week of politics here in Washington as Republicans and Democrats continue to be entrenched in their positions as it comes to government funding. A lot happening here because I think what we have kind of shown over and over again over the past several weeks is that Republicans have been steady in how they've been thinking about the government funding fight,

how they are kind of basically saying clean, you know, government funding bill in a short term sense.

And then we're able to move forward.

Democrats having a much bigger ask

here, right, and kind of filling the tree in a lot of ways, right, whether it comes to Medicare

funding, whether it comes to trying to repeal some of the kind of politics of the Trump

administration when it comes to recisions. And the Republicans have found

themselves in an unusual position when it comes to shutdowns, right? They have the unquestionable

upper hand in the government funding fight. But the question now is, are they squandering it?

There's been a string of missteps providing Democrats a boost in the back and

forth battle over who would be responsible for a shutdown when federal agencies run out of money

in just seven days. Of course, at the top of that list is President Donald Trump. He on Tuesday

abruptly canceled a meeting was set at Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,

giving Democrats an opening to paint him as an indifferent leader to finding the 60 votes he needs

...