ANALYSIS
Government shutdown for first time in seven years after Democrats insist on funding health coverage for illegals
The latest Republican proposal to avert the shutdown fell five Democratic votes short of passage.
Jeffries and Schumer at the White House/Jim Watson.
Congress was unable to avert the government shutdown. After weeks of speculation of a possible shutdown, the September 30 deadline was reached without an agreement between the White House and Capitol Hill Democrats. It is the 15th shutdown in the country's history and the first since January 2019, also with Donald Trump as president.
From the Trump administration, they described the situation as a "Democratic shutdown," given that Senate Democrats did not go along with legislation that would have prevented the shutdown. Instead, their proposal included an expansion of medical subsidies and coverage for illegal immigrants. "Tonight, Democrats put the needs of illegal aliens over every American," the official White House account on X posted.
They even ran a live feed on this social network, in which they simply compiled videos of Democratic lawmakers complaining about the shutdown's tactics over the past few years. Among them were Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), among others.
John Thune, the Republican majority leader in Congress, reinforced this point during his first remarks after the latest vote ended up failing.
"We simply asked Democrats to extend existing funding levels to allow the Senate to continue the bipartisan appropriations work that we started. And Senate Democrats said no. Why? Because far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted to show down with the president. And so Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats and partisan interests," the Senate Republican majority leader said.
">.@LeaderJohnThune: The Democrat caucus in the Senate has chosen to shut down the government over a clean, nonpartisan funding bill... Why? Because far-left interest groups and far-left Democrat members wanted a showdown with the President. pic.twitter.com/kqItABWMQ6
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 30, 2025
On Tuesday, September 30, the Senate witnessed two attempts to avoid the shutdown. The Democratic proposal, criticized by Republicans for containing excessive levels of spending and the possibility of covering health care for illegal immigrants, was rejected with 53 votes against. Moments later, the vote for the Republican plan, already approved by the House of Representatives, began.
Although three Democrats voted in favor—John Fetterman (D-PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Angus King (D-ME)—the legislation fell five votes short of passage, with 55 votes in favor of the 60 needed.
">It’s a sad day for our nation.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) September 30, 2025
Our government shuts down at midnight.
I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government.
My vote was our country over my party.
Together, we must find a better way forward. pic.twitter.com/lK1gqIIi60
"I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government. My vote was for our country over my party. Together, we must find a better way forward," the Pennsylvania senator said.
Both Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, aimed at President Trump. "Republicans JUST VOTED DOWN our bill to avoid a government shutdown at midnight and address the healthcare needs of the American people. Republicans are plunging us into a government shutdown rather than fixing their healthcare crisis," Schumer said after the vote.
What did each party call for to avoid a shutdown?
The Democratic proposal involved Republicans making concessions on health care. One of these had to do with health insurance subsidies. These were approved by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and extended under the American Bailout Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, both pieces of legislation funded by Joe Biden.
As reported by Politico, both Trump and JD Vance were open to discussing subsidies, but only as long as the government is open. In 2024, and according to the House Budget Committee, these subsidies had an approximate fiscal cost of $125 billion.
In addition, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) sharply criticized the Democratic proposal for its plan with illegal immigrants.
"I knew they were going to do this two weeks ago when they listed their demands. They're demanding, for example, that we not check people on Medicaid for eligibility by income. Just let anybody who wants to sign up. They're demanding that we give free health care to foreign nationals who are in our country illegally. It's between one point two and one point five trillion dollars," Kennedy told Newsmax.
On the Republican side, the leadership proposed a "clean" package, with no riders, that maintained spending levels in place through November.
">"Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is you're stupid and you made a bad decision."@SenJohnKennedy ripped his Democrat counterparts and their "unserious" demands ahead of the deadline to avoid a government shutdown. @SchmittNYC pic.twitter.com/OW38Hv7Njy
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) September 30, 2025
What is the government shutdown?
The logic comes from the National Constitution, specifically Article 1, Section 9: "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law, and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."
Once closure is reached, certain agencies directly cease to function. They may be all, some, or some in particular. Employees cannot wo,rk and their pay is withheld until lawmakers agree.
The government budget has two major types of spending: mandatory and discretionary. Specifically, the shutdown only affects the discretionary part of the budget, but not mandatory spending, which includes social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest payments on the debt. These expenditures would not be affected by an eventual shutdown.
The discretionary leg includes federal agencies, national parks, regulatory agencies, such as the EPA, and administrative services.
In turn, essential activities such as homeland security, military on duty, air traffic control, or emergency medical services continue to operate, even though their employees must work without pay until Congress approves funding.
The United States was completely unaware of this scenario until well into the 20th century, when in 198,0 the first government shutdown took place. Jimmy Carter was the first president to be in charge during this situation, which on that occasion lasted a little over 24 hours. The shutdown was repeated in 1982 (twice), 1983, 1984 (twice), 1986, 1987, 1990, 1995 (twice), 2013, 2018, 2,019, and now 2025.
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