There are no winners in a government shutdown

Once this federal government shutdown ends — whenever that may be — it is inevitable that someone will declare victory. However, as things stand, there will be no real winners.

It won’t be the federal workers — including more than 100,000 in Philadelphia — who either get to sit at home or labor indefinitely without a paycheck. Nor will it be the wider economy, as the last shutdown cost Americans $3 billion. Let alone the dwindling trust that our leaders can get anything done, according to the Tribune News Service.

Even so, what other choice did Democrats have? In March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer came under fire from many in his own party after he was seen as caving to President Donald Trump when he corralled enough senators to vote to keep the government open. Back then, Schumer believed the opposite, that a shutdown would only empower and embolden the president’s smashmouth style of governance.

Months of increasingly outrageous actions from Trump and his administration, including the absolute disregard of Congress’ power of the purse, have left Democratic leaders with little recourse but to make their stand. “How could we negotiate a bipartisan agreement and then have the president unilaterally through impoundment, or the Republican Party through rescissions and the president unilaterally through pocket rescissions, undo it all without any input,” Schumer said after he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Trump and GOP congressional leaders Monday.

Representing the state of bipartisan discourse, the president responded by posting a racist deepfake video to social media depicting Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a mustache while Schumer vulgarly disparaged Democrats and immigrants. As the shutdown took hold Wednesday, Republicans demanded that Senate Democrats “abandon their radical demands and fund the government.” Those radical demands? That affordable healthcare access for millions of Americans be protected.

Trump’s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, not only extended his first term’s tax cuts, but also added additional reductions — with the biggest benefits going to the wealthiest few. To offset the loss of revenue, Republicans in Congress instituted funding cuts to Medicaid and changes to the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats want to reverse the Medicaid cuts and extend federal tax credits that reduce the cost of health insurance purchased through ACA marketplaces, which are set to expire by the end of the year. Taken together, Republican proposals are projected to leave 16 million people without health insurance by 2034.

In saner times, the GOP would see the Democrats’ demands as a win-win scenario. The party could be seen as compromising on the most unpopular aspect of legislation so toxic they are actively trying to rebrand it. Not to mention that communities that voted for Trump are likely to be deeply hurt by the cuts, including by the closures of hospitals in rural areas, which depend on Medicaid.

But these are not those times. Already many Republican legislators are misrepresenting Democratic efforts, casting them as shutting down the government over giving free healthcare to people who are in the country illegally.

This is as patently false as it is shameless. Yet while Democrats are right to hold the line on healthcare, they are unlikely to prevail in the shutdown because there is no one on the other side willing to negotiate in good faith. Trump has already promised to use the shutdown to further gut the federal workforce. That the president’s plan may be legally questionable fails to deter an administration intent on flouting the law.

The best chance for those who will lose their healthcare is for Democrats to regain control of Congress. In the meantime, Democrats must remind voters that this clash is about policy differences, that they are willing to compromise, and that while what’s happening is not good, the alternative is worse. This shutdown fight is worth having. But thanks to Republicans, America has already lost.