GAME OF CHICKEN…POOP!
by Cash Michaels
As I begin this commentary shortly after the start of the current infamous federal government shutdown, nine months into Trump’s second presidency, there is little doubt in my mind that it will not be over by the time you read this at least a week later. Because Republicans (who are in charge of the White House, House and Senate) and Democrats (who are the heretofore sorry, powerless minority in Congress) can’t come to a mutual agreement on what’s known as a “CR” (continuing resolution) to keep the government funded and running, important federal government operations have either been slowed down or shutdown.
To add insult to injury, thousands of innocent federal employees stand to lose their jobs behind this mess, and to add even more insult and injury, many may not even get paid for the work they've done, or work they were supposed to do.
The sticking issue here is health care, and Democrats say fix what’s broken now because time is running out.
Republicans say we’ve got plenty to time to talk about fixing health insurance stuff, just reopen the government first by voting with us.
Democrats’ response - You must think we’re chumps! You fix now, then you open now!
Pres. Trump is beyond gleeful about all of this because, as far as he’s concerned, this gives him a chance to permanently reduce the size of the federal government, and paint his Democratic opponents (you know, some of the people he ‘hates” the most) as the bad guys. All they have to do is give him what he wants, or else, he assumes, Dems will carry most of the political blame for whatever damage the shutdown causes.
And make no mistake, as we begin this commentary on Friday, Oct. 3rd, hundreds of thousands of federal employees have either been furloughed or threatened with dismissal.
The rest who still have a job, and remain on the job, are not being paid to do their job.
Either way, hardworking fellow American federal workers with families are being used as pawns in this unmitigated pissing contest between Trump and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate (where at least three Senate Democrats have already caved in to Republican demands to go along to get along. One Democrat-leaning independent senator is thinking about switching back).
Nebraska Republican Congressman Mike Flood apparently did not get the memo to keep up the "act of concern" for impacted federal workers. He recently told CNN, “…[W]e have a bloated government. It makes sense to make some cuts. But until I see the exact plan, it‘s going to be hard to say how it will affect America or Nebraska.”
The “exact plan” is to act like you care, Mike, act like you care!
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Voight, a chief architect of the cold-blooded Project 2025, says he’s withholding billions in funding already approved for projects in at least 16 Democratic blue states like New York and Illinois to punish them for the shutdown standoff and not voting for Trump in the last election.
By now you’re probably sick of hearing both sides, especially if you’re reading this well past Day 3. Trump and the Republicans are pulling out all stops to blame the Democrats for any resulting human carnage from all of this mess, even though they're the ones pulling the strings.
And Democrats, amazingly, have found some backbone to stand up to Trump and his GOP minions for once, demanding the GOP rollback the billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts that were passed in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” in addition to cutting billions more in Obamacare tax credit subsidies, just to give the rich big, permanent tax breaks.
It’s a sight to see and hear Democrats standing strong.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has even challenged Speaker Mike Johnson to a nationally televised primetime debate on the shutdown. Of course Speaker “MAGA Mouse” (my pet name for such a spineless Trump sycophant) said no, but again, Democrats are being the aggressors here, which is good.
Yes, Republicans in either the U.S. House or Senate cannot reopen the government unless they get a certain number of Democratic votes (the Senate Republicans need a 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster, unless they change the rule), even with a clear majority in the Senate, and razor-thin majority in the House. So they have to agree to something Democrats like in order to end the shutdown.
Or Dems could (but better not) cave to Republican demands to vote with them to reopen the government, thus throwing away whatever leverage they’ve earned thus far.
Republicans say since Dems won’t give them the requisite number of “yes” votes needed, any collateral damage from the shutdown is on them.
“We want to protect hardworking federal workers,” insists Speaker MAGA Mouse. “Democrats are the ones who have decided to inflict the pain.”
Someone who lies like this deserves to be Trump's chump.
Why won’t Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his Senate Democrats give Trump and the Republicans what they want to reopen the government?
They say there will be no funding deal until Republicans vote immediately to extend enhanced tax credit subsidies for Obamacare, which are set to expire at the end of the year without congressional action. Open enrollment actually begins November 1st, with renewal notices already in the mail, thus the urgency.
Without those subsidies, millions of Americans will find themselves paying hundreds of dollars, if not thousands more per month, Democrats charge.
On “X” recently, Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA), a man I’ve come to respect, clearly documented the problem.
He displayed the health insurance costs for a 65-year-old man with Obamacare in Georgia receiving government subsidies in 2025 versus what his health insurance costs are projected to be without those tax credit subsidies in 2026.
For that 65-year-old with an Anthem Blue Cross-Blue Shield Bronze HMO plan now - $307.20 per month.
What that same Anthem Blue Cross - Blue Shield Bronze HMO plan for that 65-year-old man will cost once Republicans are allowed to eliminate the government subsidies - $964.30 per month.
“This is s crisis. We cannot wait to fix this,” Sen. Warnock warns, and he gave several other examples documenting what Americans will face if GOP cuts to health care are allowed to go through.
“Let’s be clear: I don’t want a government shutdown,” Sen. Warnock continued. “But I won’t accept raising the already high costs of health care for millions of Americans, closing hospitals, and making people sicker.”
Meanwhile, Republicans counter the main reason Democrats are dragging their feet on a deal to reopen the government is because they want free government sponsored healthcare for “illegal aliens,” which is a brazen lie!
A number of news organizations have already debunked this unsupported malarkey, and found it wanting. This from CNN:
What we’ve increasingly seen in the Trump-era GOP is a more shameless and almost unflinching willingness to say whatever is most advantageous in the moment, no matter if it misleads Americans about the very real issues in an important debate.
Top Republicans like J.D. Vance, Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are certainly guilty of this.
Dems call B.S. on the false Republican claim because, by law, undocumented immigrants are ineligible to get free government sponsored healthcare, and Democrats aren’t seeking to change that law. Republicans, they charge, are just trying to scare people.
And so both sides are in this rhetorical pitch battle, and are playing a very costly game of chicken…poop.
Who will win? Who should win? Well now that I’ve given you all of the pertinent facts as best as I understand them, the rest of this commentary is pure opinion. How could I go wrong?
First, in my opinion, Trump and the Republicans are congenital liars every day, hour, minute and second they breathe, so any time they can grab more power, especially at the Democrats’ expense, they’ll do it, and not give one whip of a whistler’s damn who they hurt in the process.
A recent Washington Post poll showed that 47% of American hold Republicans responsible for the shutdown. 30% blame Democrats, and 23% are just not sure.
So the American people, thus far, aren’t falling for the GOP okee-doak.
Let’s be clear - who’s giving the orders here? Who’s taking the orders like a bunch of scared rabbits?
Who has threatened to fire federal workers en masse and touted that now’s his chance to eliminate several so-called “Democrat agencies" without paying anybody?
There’s only one man who thinks like this, and talks like this, and he damn sure is NOT a Democrat.
Who has the temerity to send out racist Mexican sombrero and mustache memes of Democrat leaders while serious discussions about keeping the government should be going on?
Who ordered Dept. of Education employee nonpartisan out-of-office emails to broadcast anti-Democratic Party messages about the shutdown be sent out, which is illegal?
And who has been salivating at the very thought of destroying Obamacare since his first term as president, but neither he nor his Republican cohorts could ever get the job done?
If you answered Donald Trump to all of the above questions, congratulations, ‘cause you’re paying attention, probably more than most citizens.
To be point blank, Democrats simply have to stand up to Trump and company on this one. If they don’t display some backbone here, they will have signed their own political death warrant for generations to come.
Dems can’t be seen or heard giving in to the infestation that is destroying our democracy. They MUST show the they’re willing to go to the mat for what matters! Dedicated federal workers are losing their jobs, important government programs are being cut. It’s a high and horrible price to pay for what’s going on, but those are the cards on the table, and Democrats did not put them there.
This is what Trump wants, and Democrats are the only ones in a position to stop him, especially with the 2026 midterm elections just around the corner.
For his part, Trump feels he has nothing to lose as long as he can sucker Republicans in Congress to do his bidding. In fact, he’s not saying a whole lot so that Republicans in Congress are left holding the bag. What a coward-in-chief!
“When there’s significant upside, he doesn’t care about downside,” one Trump ally told CNN about the president. “And he doesn’t really give a damn about criticism.”
But I’ve always wondered about something. We’re told that the reason why Trump holds sway over congressional Republicans is because he can primary anyone in the party who isn’t obedient.
The part that doesn’t make sense to me is, there are 220 Republicans in the House, and 53 Republicans in the U.S. Senate. If everyone of them, or even most of them in both chambers, grew a pair and stood up to him, Trump couldn’t possibly sponsor primary opposition against all of them. If he did, it’s even odds that Republicans would lose the 2026 midterms which would do him no good.
Besides, many of the people who would suffer the most because of the escalated cost of Obamacare health insurance premiums live in Red states, so if their current representatives stood up for them now and deal in good faith with Democrats to keep those costs from rising, in addition to keeping rural hospitals open and Medicaid from being drastically cut, I think the voters in their states would reward Republicans for that act of courage.
According to NBC News, more than 22 million Americans get the Obamacare tax subsidies. And a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) just before the shutdown revealed the 59% of Republicans and 57% of MAGA supporters want those subsidies extended by Congress.
In that same poll, 4 in 10 Americans with an Obamacare plan said they would go without insurance if their monthly premiums doubled.
Even Trump’s own pollster, Tony Fabrizio, has warned Republicans that they’re playing with electoral fire here, fire that could burn down the 2026 midterm elections for them.
So this isn’t so one-sided out in the hinterland, giving the GOP an opportunity to support their base, instead of Trump.
And once Republicans in Congress stand up to Donald Trump, he would be virtually powerless to get away with much else.
But you see, that would require a spine, and the Republican Party has proven that isn’t about to grow one now, or in the future. So that just leaves us where we are - a federal government shutdown unless Democrats give in.
Oh, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not at all saying that Democrats should give in. But as long as Republicans continue to play clueless puppy dogs to their master, Donald Trump, this shutdown is going to going on, and on, and on.
This mess is starting to hurt the economy. Federal workers, especially the military, aren’t getting paychecks to spend in their local communities. The Bureau of Labor statistics can’t issue an unemployment report for the previous month, so the Federal Reserve will have a hard time determining accurate interest rates. The financial markets are watching gobsmacked for what will happen next.
Air traffic controllers at airports across the country are not reporting for work because they’re not getting paid, causing delays. Thousands of federal contract workers are not only not being paid, but, unlike furloughed federal employees, are not entitled to any back pay once the shutdown is over.
And millions of mothers and their children may lose WIC benefits next week, meaning they lose food.
We’re playing with fire here on all fronts, folks. We can’t have this many balls in the air at once in some time without dropping at least one of them, and someone seriously getting hurt!
Our legislative leaders are talking to everybody else except each other.
Hell, the U.S. House wasn’t even in session this week, not set to return until Oct. 14th. And there's no guarantee it will return then. Plus, the Senate has voted down every proposal that’s come before it so far to reopen the government, five and counting.
Most federal employees are normally scheduled to get their paychecks on Oct. 15th if it wasn’t for this mess. Those checks would normally be cut by the 13th. Now, the only federal folks getting paychecks will be members of Congress, who obviously don’t deserve them. Word is Republicans hope Democrats will give up and give in by the 15th.
That’s not going to happen.
And now there’s reporting on a White House memo that questions whether furloughed federal workers actually have to be given back pay after the shutdown is over. Trump's goons are seriously playing with ignoring a law that Trump himself signed during his first term to ensure that such a thing doesn't happen. First Republicans play with innocent people, then punish them because they can.
Folks forget, Donald Trump is infamous for having people work for him, like the workers who built his casinos in New Jersey or Trump Tower in Manhattan many years ago, and not paying them, not caring a damn about any resulting lawsuits. We're seeing that again.
With Trump, the cruelty never stops.
We began all of this in the chicken poop stage, folks! But now, we’re shoveling our way through the massive loads of pure B.S. stage, with Trump weighing in saying he’ll “work” with Democrats on Obamacare subsidy issues.
But, he insists, they have to reopen the government first!
What a liar! Dems didn’t close the federal government! And they’re not firing or laying off thousands of federal employees either.
Trump wants this win no matter what the costs, and if Republicans don’t soon wake up and realize how they’re being manipulated to ultimately destroy this country and their party, they will be willing accomplices!
Thus far, at least one MAGA Republican has broken ranks with leadership on not saving Obamacare, primarily because it affects her constituents and family. Talking about oft times nutty Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who let it be known Monday night on X that this shutdown should not be a game.
“I’m going to go against everyone on this issue because when the tax credits expire this year my own adult children’s insurance premiums for 2026 are going to DOUBLE, along with all the wonderful families and hard-working people in my district,” the MAGA Republican better known as MTG, wrote.
“No I’m not towing the party line on this, or playing loyalty games. It’s one of the top issues I hear about in my district,” she added. “I’m conservative and obviously want to do everything I can to reduce spending and the overall national debt…”
Then MTG made clear that her congressional leadership is not ready for primetime.
“Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!” MTG added.
Obviously, just based on the polls, she can’t be the only Republican in Congress feeling this way. Probably why Speaker "MAGA Mouse" Johnson shut the House down this week, so Republican members, like MTG, wouldn’t turn on him and vote the other way.
To be clear, there are other House Republicans, like conservative Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who see this as a chance to destroy Obamacare altogether, and are urging their GOP leadership to hang tough against the Democrats.
“If Republicans govern by polls and fail to grab this moment, they will own it,” Rep. Roy warned his party in an open letter in The Wall Street Journal this week.
Well, it’s been beyond a week since the government shutdown began, and almost a week since I began writing this commentary, and there’s no end in sight. The madness continues.
The holidays are coming just around the corner, and all of those federal government employee families are having to suffer without a paycheck for the foreseeable future! And Trump has the unmitigated gall to say some of the furloughed employees don’t even deserve their jobs, or deserve to get paid.
Meanwhile masked federalized officers are raiding Portland, Oregon and Chicago, Ill. from other states like Texas, against the will of the leadership in those states, brutalizing innocent people at will.
All because one greedy, lying, power-hungry old man, with the heart of a convicted criminal, is willing to hurt anyone and everyone, just to get what he wants to glorify his sick and crippled ego!
Welcome to America, everybody!
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