Monday marked day 13 of the federal government shutdown, with Republicans and Democrats locked in a standoff over funding priorities while leaving millions of Americans and federal employees in limbo.
Vice President J.D. Vance characterized the impasse as a “hostage-taking” tactic by Democrats, criticizing the party for tying routine government funding to unrelated policy demands.
“If Chuck Schumer wants to come into the Oval Office or come to my house, he is welcome to talk about how to fix health care policy for Americans,” Vance said, per CBS News.“But you don’t come into the Oval Office and say, ‘unless you, the President of the United States, give us everything that I want, I’m going to shut down the government.’”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) offered a similar outlook on the ongoing shutdown, saying that Democrats are playing “political games” and blaming the issues on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
“This marks the third week that Democrats have blocked paychecks to our troops, they’ve blocked pay for 2.2 million federal workers and they’ve held critical services that the American people rely upon in limbo,” he said on Monday, per CBS News.
Although shutdowns frequently result in a lack of pay for those in the military, President Donald Trump recently announced that “all available funds” will be used for those who provide these services to the U.S., as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Meanwhile, various Democratic leaning outlets have begun to question the real reasons behind the shutdown, with some calling out Democratic leaders for their actions over the past two weeks.
CNBC host Joe Kernen underscored the unusual nature of the standoff while speaking with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), explaining that Democrats would be “going crazy” if Republicans acted in this manner during previous administrations.
“There was an election, and the Republicans were put in a position where they were able to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, or as you call it, the ‘Big Ugly Bill.’ To then say, we don’t like any of that, so we’re going to shut down the government until you take back all the things that you duly passed through legislation,” he said, per Mediaite
“If Republicans had tried to do that to the Inflation Reduction Act or any of the acts that Biden and that administration have passed, if they said we’re going to shut down the government because we don’t like any of those things you did, ‘we’re not going to pay our military, we are going to not allow the government to reopen until you do what we want’ – after an election where the American people put Democrats in power – you’d be going crazy! You’d be crazy about using a shutdown of the government on a continuing resolution.”
Currently, there is no indication about when this shutdown will end, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has called on Democratic leadership to step up and help compromise on the issues plaguing lawmakers.
“This coming Tuesday, the Senate will vote for the 8th time to open up the government and end the unnecessary uncertainty for military families,” he wrote on social media.
“Let’s hope there are 5 more Democrats who will join us, because despite all of the good work we’ve done, there’s a lot more we could do if the Schumer Shutdown ends.”