It's September 30th, 2025, and you have joined Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.

I'm narrator, Chris Elkins, voicing today's daily article authored by friend and senior editor

for theology, Dr. Ryan Dennison.

As Dr. Jim Denison described in yesterday's daily article, Congress has until the end of today to fund the government, or at least parts of it, will shut down starting tomorrow.

If it feels like we've been here before, well, you're not wrong. Congress found itself in essentially the same situation six months ago when it kicked the can down the road to today.

That crisis was averted after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer gathered just enough support from

his party to help pass the Republican continuing resolution, which was supposed to buy leaders

from both parties enough time to pass a new budget.

That didn't happen, and if the rhetoric coming out of yesterday's meeting with President Trump is any indication,

Democrats are unlikely to yield again.

But while party divisions continue to dominate the narrative as both sides attempt to shift the blame across the aisle,

the simple fact is that neither

party has been willing to do what's necessary to actually pass a budget. In fact, Congress has

only passed all their required appropriations measures to fund the government for a given year

four times since 1977, with the most recent instance occurring nearly 30 years ago.

And even back in 1996, it took a six-bill omnibus package, a bill that funds multiple areas

of the government at once to get them over the finish line in time.

That's not how it's supposed to work.

When Congress adopted the current format in

1974, the idea was to split government funding into multiple bills under the theory that it would

be easier to find common ground when focusing on one area rather than on the budget as a whole.

As such, under the current arrangement, the House and Senate

...