The Shutdown Is the Policy
This is not a normal shutdown. And it's not going to go away any time soon.
Why?
Because the shutdown is the policy.
Think about it - what does the administration get out of the shutdown?
- It immediately makes the government drastically smaller, which Republicans have wanted for years.
- It causes their enemies great pain and distress.
- They do not lose any parts of the government they want or need, like the military, nuclear facilities, air traffic control, or border patrol, because they can bypassing congressional allocation of resources, and take money from other parts of the government to fund their priority items instead.
Why would they want to end a shutdown that effectively renders every part of the government they don't want or need defunct? It's a master stroke of destruction.
Even if they do end the shutdown eventually, they will likely have been able to push it so long that many government employees will have quit and taken other work in order to pay their bills.
So, the shutdown is cover for permanently reshaping the government. The result is a two-tiered federal government, made of:
- Funded tier: Military, border enforcement, what Trump called "Republican programs," anything they can jury-rig through executive action
- Defunded tier: Social services, environmental protection, education oversight, fair housing enforcement - systematically starved until they collapse
The brilliance (from their perspective) is that once capacity is destroyed, it's nearly impossible to rebuild. Why?
- Scientists who leave would take years to replace
- Institutional knowledge vanishes
- Contracts are terminated
- State partnerships dissolve
The November 1st SNAP cutoff is a test case - if they can weather tens of millions losing food assistance, the administration has proven it can eliminate any program by simply refusing to fund it and blaming the opposition.
The traditional assumption is that both parties fundamentally want government to function, and it is deeply incorrect. This administration does not at all care about serving the people, or about making sure the poor are fed and the disabled cared for. In their mind, if you're poor, it's your fault, and if you're disabled, you should be left to survival of the fittest.
This is their form of governance, through deliberate dysfunction. Let the parts you don't like collapse, keep afloat what you need through executive creativity, and when it's over you have a permanently smaller federal government that lacks the capacity to enforce regulations, provide services, or constrain executive power.
From the administration's perspective, it's perfect, because it does not require actually passing legislation to eliminate programs - just not passing legislation to fund them.
If you normally rely on services provided by departments currently shut down, start making other backup plans now, because they may not come back online any time soon. And if they do, they may be operating on a wing and a prayer.