The government will go dark on March 15, 2025

Read:   https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/government-shutdown-trump-funding-freeze-00202533  

While the Democratic leader in the House demands that Trump’s funding freeze be “choked off” as part of any funding agreement, Republican lawmakers say it will be Democrats who take the fall for causing a funding lapse if they hold that line. And so the shutdown blame game begins again. The exasperated Democrats sitting opposite Cole at the negotiating table say any good faith agreement with their GOP counterparts is meaningless if Trump disregards the will of Congress by using “impoundment” to withhold funding they pass into law. “If the White House is not going to honor an agreement and use impoundment, then it is hard to come to agreement,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray , the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator, said in a brief interview Tuesday.

That is only 37 days away.  The government shutdown that had been scheduled for December 21, 2024 has been postponed until March 15, 2025.  Aggravating factors:

1. Trump wants the debt ceiling also included in any deal. (At least he did in December).

2. Trump wants to make spending cuts and use impoundment.   So ironically, the Democrats who don't want spending cuts, will refuse to make a deal, which will result in the shutdown.  They don't have any leverage here.

3. The hard core right, I guess that includes me, wants further spending cuts and will reject a compromise bill.  Meanwhile, the Democrats won't support it because there are too many cuts.  So the votes aren't there.

4. Also, don't forget the BTFP will expire on March 10, 2025, which may cause a banking crisis because many banks are reliant on it.  Update: The BTFP is already shut down and this didn't cause an issue, so scratch this.

Shut it all down!

Update: 5. According to Thomas Massie, the Democrats will insist on fully funding US AID as a price of avoiding a government shutdown.  So the Republicans will have to agree to fund US AID in order to reopen the government. Or else not agree and keep the government closed.  Hmm, tough decision.

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Update: The Democrats agree that the government should shut down.   https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2025/02/10/rep-hoyle-dems-wont-fund-the-government-if-it-undermines-the-american-people/

Representative Val Hoyle (D-OR) said on Monday on CNN’s “News Central” that Democratic lawmakers will not vote to fund the government if Republicans are advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda, which “undermines the American people.” Host John Berman said, “What can you do about this? There are some raising the possibility of shutting down the government in March, when some of these funding bills come up for a vote. Do you think Democrats should stand in the way?”  They will need Democratic votes to pass this budget. And fundamentally we’re not going to vote for something that undermines the American people.”