Government shutdowns are always and everywhere about using government spending —or, really, the restriction of government spending —as political leverage. Sometimes they are used effectively, and sometimes not, but the goal is to impose pain on your negotiating partner and break their will.
"If Congress said, 'we're not going to take our paychecks until we figure this out,' that would be a step in the right direction."
— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) October 21, 2025
"Not everybody can afford to do that."
"Neither can the people who aren't getting paid enough."
"That's a fair point."pic.twitter.com/18G8fiWZ9d
Since politicians are careful to avoid feeling any of the pain directly—they consider themselves essential employees and keep the money flowing into their own pockets—the pain has to be inflicted on others, with the hope that the victims can implore their legislators to give in to demands.
🚨 @WhipKClark, the number two House Democrat, on the Democrat Shutdown: "Of course there will be families that are going to suffer... but it is one of the few leverage times we have."
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 22, 2025
These people are SICK! pic.twitter.com/7MRHsmGMGx
Think of the whipping boy in monarchies. Since nobody can punish the royals, punishment is dealt out to a young boy in the hope that his entreaties will persuade the young prince or king to behave.
.@LeaderJohnThune brought the receipts and grilled Senate Democrat leaders with their OWN WORDS:
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 29, 2025
📍 @SenSchumer: “Every day gets better for us.”
📍 @WhipKClark: “Of course there will be families going to suffer, but it’s one of the few leverage times we have.”
📍 @ChrisCoons:… pic.twitter.com/hb9IvpIXL9
Of course, no politician wants to tell their constituents that they are playing political games that result in harm to their voters, so they come up with what they hope to be persuasive arguments for shutting down the government (or at least parts of it). Sometimes the arguments are persuasive enough, but often not. Eventually, somebody gives in because they are getting the blame for the pain caused to voters.
WATCH: The Schumer Shutdown has backfired so badly that it has CNN freaking out over recent poll numbers. pic.twitter.com/QBY5xysPLn
— The Western Journal (@WesternJournalX) October 28, 2025
The Democrats' arguments have fallen flat with the American public—fewer and fewer people think they have a point, and it is killing them in the polls. That is why, as I argued yesterday, the dike is crumbling and will soon come down. More Democrats are going to defect.
BREAKING: 🚨 Dem Chris Coons ADMITS on C-SPAN that DEMOCRATS are using the American people as "leverage" for their shutdown because Republicans control all 3 major branches of Government. pic.twitter.com/wFWJL9VJmE
— E X X ➠A L E R T S (@ExxAlerts) October 28, 2025
Which is why the ones who want to keep going are admitting the fact that this is not about health care, or anything else. It is about exercising the only power they have.
Wow. Sheldon Whitehouse admits they’re using working families as leverage because “it’s the only lever we have.”
— Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) October 28, 2025
Reopen the government! pic.twitter.com/tbPX3Hu64a
The most liberal members are the ones resorting to telling their voters a version of the truth: it's leverage to get what Democrats want exactly as they want it. If this were about health care subsidies, both the president and the Republicans have said they want to come to a negotiated compromise. It's not good policy to do so—eliminating Obamacare and replacing it with something sustainable is necessary—but few Republicans want to go into 2026 with some people getting massive hits to their wallets.
Democrats have blocked SNAP food assistance for 42 million Americans 13 times.
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) October 28, 2025
On Saturday, funding runs out completely, and families nationwide will go hungry.
In their words, they did it to increase their political “leverage.” pic.twitter.com/utXcrzE8sF
So what they are really fighting for is funding for purely Democratic constituencies, such as illegal aliens and others whom they threw subsidies to under temporary COVID "emergency measures." Democrats wouldn't vote for these subsidies to be permanent when they controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House, but are going to the mat for them now as much to break Republican unity as to service their own constituencies.
This is a TOUGH watch.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 24, 2025
CNBC: "The 3 year setup for the expiration of [Obamacare] credits was put in when [DEMOCRATS] controlled the WH, House & Senate..
NOW you want the Republicans to do something YOU didn't do when you were in power?"
Jeffries: 😶pic.twitter.com/JB6DPfVo9B
Democrats have been voting against bills to pay federal workers and the military, proving that they want the pain to go on because pain is their power.
Good morning to everybody...
— Markwayne Mullin (@SenMullin) October 29, 2025
Except @SenateDems intentionally withholding their votes to re-open the government, because they're using your paycheck as "leverage" for a $1.5T ransom.
Again, I'll gladly discuss broken, unaffordable Obamacare when 5 more Dems do the right thing. pic.twitter.com/G98AkphFEH
But the pain hits their own constituents most, which is why some Democrats are making their last pitch to their voters: if you want us to have power, you must endure the pain. They think this is Churchillian rallying of the troops, but it is hitting the ocean like a kamikaze plane shot down before it reaches the target.
Per @BradOnMessage 100% of AFGE’s political donations went to Democrats in 2024 (that is how significant this moment is for Democrats). https://t.co/RIL8lrAfGV
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) October 27, 2025
Federal workers are done with being the whipping boys, so they aren't the target market for this messaging, and this is why it is the most progressive legislators who are talking about "leverage" and not their actual demands. The market is the extreme left, who want a fight and don't care what it costs.
Even CNN isn't buying Democrats' lies about the shutdown anymore.
— GOP (@GOP) October 29, 2025
JAKE TAPPER: "This is ... a choice by Senate Democrats to not vote to open the government."
MELANIE STANSBURY: "No it is not."
TAPPER: "Yes it is." pic.twitter.com/b6BoHxA1wb
The Democrats who care about winning elections in tough races want this over and done with, but they are all held hostage to the radical left, who want blood, even if much of it is their own.
The media, which is more aligned with the Democratic establishment than the far left (outside MSNBC), has clearly gotten the signal: Help us end the shutdown. They are no longer running cover for the Democratic messaging, and at least some of that has to do with the desire of the establishment Democrats to defang the far left because they are hurting electoral chances.
🚨NEW: California Democrat Congressman Josh Harder doubles down on calling shutdown suffering Dems' political "LEVERAGE"
— Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) October 29, 2025
Asked why he won't reopen government, Harder says:
"I think the idea that you would give up all of your leverage … is just a fool's errand" pic.twitter.com/SFsTfFCH3r
The civil war inside the Democratic Party has been simmering since the Obama years, and the first skirmish was the Hillary Clinton/Bernie Sanders race in 2016. The establishment won then, and again in 2020 with their pick of Joe Biden, who was similarly unpopular with the left. Ironically, Biden was, as president, the most far-left president ever, as the left took over his administration. And the left now dominates the party.
Democrats are trying to have it both ways.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) October 29, 2025
One day they blame Republicans for the shutdown. The next, they admit they’re causing pain “for leverage.”
Families are hurting while Chuck Schumer waits for the radical left to tell him what to do next. pic.twitter.com/7gcyabmguk
The establishment wants its power back. Electorally, I doubt they can get it, but tactically, I suspect that they will win the shutdown battle because the left so obviously miscalculated.
The thing about civil wars is that everybody loses. Every casualty is "on the same side" in at least one sense. In this case, no matter which Democratic faction "wins," Democrats as a whole were the only casualties.
The "leverage" argument may convince progressives to stick it out, but to most ordinary Americans, the message they hear is that Democrats are willing to sacrifice them in order to get as much power as possible.
That's not a compelling political message.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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