On Monday, the last chance to avoid a government shutdown, talks between Republicans and Democrats broke down. During the talks, Vice President J.D. Vance and House Majority Leader Mike Johnson convened a press conference to say that Democrats were being hypocritical “hostage-takers.” Democratic leaders were also arguing that Republicans would be to blame if the government closed down.
Vance began by suggesting that a shutdown was coming soon because Democrats, who are in the minority, were asking for things that didn’t make sense:
“We don’t always agree…” but that doesn’t mean the government can’t work.
“You can’t say to the American people, ‘If you don’t do exactly what Senate and House Democrats want you to do, we’ll shut down your government.'”
“Now we have to keep in mind that they are quite angry. They say they’re quite angry that this negotiation hasn’t transpired till now.
“However, if you look at the original proposal for this negotiation, it was a $1.5 trillion spending package that basically told the American people, ‘We plan to spend a lot of money, hundreds of billions of dollars, on the health care of illegal aliens while Americans are having trouble paying for their own health care.'”
“We thought it was crazy.” We told them it was crazy, and now they’re coming in here and saying that if you don’t give us everything we want, we’ll shut down the government. We think that’s silly. We think that’s really unacceptable.
See:
Vice President @JDVance comes out minutes after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pitched a fit about Republicans not caving to their demands ahead of a government shutdown.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 29, 2025
“We have disagreements…but you don’t shut the government… pic.twitter.com/EEfW8A1wGM
Shutdown fights are the most boring and pointless thing in politics. This is primarily because Democrats learned how to play both sides and blame Republicans no matter who is there.
If Democrats want a shutdown, it’s suddenly “Republicans’ fault” for being hard to work with. If Republicans don’t take bad deals, people say they’re ruining things. If Republicans pass a clean continuing resolution and Democrats destroy it, the GOP will still be blamed. The corporate media continues saying “clown-nose-on, clown-nose-off” gaslighting over and over until everyone forgets who did what.
The Speaker, on the other side, yelled at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for asking for things that weren’t necessary:
Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are here to make a scene and explain why they can’t go along with this. They are trying to bring in things that don’t matter. They offered a counteroffer. You should go see what they wanted. $1.5 trillion in new spending that isn’t part of the regular procedure for making budgets.
As you said, they wanted to bring back benefits that taxpayers pay for? Okay, hard-working Americans, they want to take your money and give it to those who are in the country illegally. They want to bring it back since we threw it away. They want it. Their goal is to help media that lean to the left. They added $500 million to it and $1.5 trillion to a temporary spending package that would last for seven weeks.
We won’t do that. They know we can’t do it, and we haven’t been able to do it. The Biden administration said 13 times that it would shut down. The Republicans who were in the minority made the proper choice. We made sure the government kept going. We want the Democrats to do the same thing…
I think it’s incredibly awful that the Democrats would be responsible for the consequences if they shut down the government.
SEE:
.@SpeakerJohnson NUKES congressional Democrats for poisoning the well on government funding negotiations:
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 29, 2025
“Now, there's a reason that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have come out here stomp the feet, saying that they can't go along with this. They're trying to bring in… pic.twitter.com/4yoQvJvHW5
Republicans need to keep pushing this notion over and over again. The script has always been the same in past shutdown fights: if a minority doesn’t approve a clean continuing resolution, that minority “causes” the shutdown. Why do the rules need to alter now? If Democrats get to modify the rules, they will be able to rule from the minority by threatening to shut down the government again and over again until they obtain every policy they want. That’s a clear attempt to take control and a slap in the face to the people who voted for Republicans.
Yes, the polls and the mainstream media will probably point the finger to the GOP. That could happen, but it shouldn’t be the only thing that decides what to do. Giving in to avoid bad headlines just gives Democrats more tools for the next fight. No matter what, people will criticize Republicans. The best thing to do is to stay strong, safeguard the will of the people, and not let brinkmanship over shutdowns become the new normal.
