The shutdown is grinding on past the two-week point and toward the three-week mark, making it one of the longest federal government shutdowns on record. As such, Republicans are attempting to push through the passage of small bills that would ensure America’s troops are paid and national security apparatus is kept intact, but Democrats are proving obstreperous and intransigent, refusing to pass a small funding bill ensuring troop pay.
As background, President Trump and his administration maneuvered to ensure troops would be paid on Wednesday, October 15, despite the shutdown, allegedly using tariff revenues to ensure their pay went through. However, the problem remains ongoing, and so Republicans have attempted to push through a small spending package that, despite not ending the shutdown completely, would at least ensure the troops are paid and the national security apparatus is kept properly funded.
However, the Democrats proved largely unwilling to pass that funding measure with only three Democrat Senators crossing the aisle to vote for the defense appropriations bill. Those three Democrats were Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).
Sen. Fetterman, commenting on the importance of getting members of the military paid, regardless of bickering about healthcare for illegal aliens and other ridiculous Democrat spending priorities in Congress, told the media, “I think the people in our military deserve to get paid. That’s what my vote is about.”
Most of the other Democrats, however, continued to put politics first and service members last. For example, Sen. Kelly (D-AZ) explained, “I just voted no. First of all, it’s not a good bill. This is not the way we normally do this. We would normally have an agreement on a process to vote on appropriations bills, not bill. I think if there was a negotiation and a process, we could do something in a bipartisan way.”
Adding to that, Sen. Kelly claimed that what really matters more than providing paychecks to America’s servicemembers is “healthcare,” which in this case includes providing taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens. He said, “We should be focused on fixing these healthcare premiums and getting the government back open. And, you know, just to bring up the one bill without the others is something we typically don’t do.”
Also chiming in on the matter was Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who declared that the real problem here is that Republicans haven’t struck an “agreement” on said healthcare spending and premium subsidization, saying, “We don’t have an agreement on anything. So obviously we can’t. They’re still not negotiating.”
"*" indicates required fields
Republicans noted that it is very bad for their party and the country that Democrats are refusing to fund national security. Sen. John Thune, for example, the Senate Majority leader, said, “If they want to stop the defense bill, I don’t think it’s very good optics for them, obviously.” Similarly, Sen. Lindsey Graham argued, “These are dangerous times. This is not the time to weaken our defenses.”
Watch Mike Johnson go nuclear on Democrats for what they want to spend money on here: