Deadlocked Democrats continue stubborn standoff, prolonging government shutdown

Senate Democrats stubbornly kicked the can down the road, voting Friday to keep the government shut down.

The government shutdown will continue through the weekend after 44 Democrats voted against the Republicans’ clean continuing resolution. However, more Democrats voted with Republicans on Friday than on Tuesday, as New York Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s coalition begins to crumble.

‘The Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.’

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine joined 51 Republicans in voting to reopen the government on Friday. Notably, these are the same three senators who initially bucked their party and voted with the GOP. Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone “no” vote of his party.

“We could be considering bipartisan appropriations bills through regular order, but instead we are stuck in a shutdown mess of Democrats’ making,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “And the American people are suffering as a result.”

RELATED: Trump trolls leftists as shutdown presents key opportunity to cut ‘Democrat Agencies’

Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Republicans are about to vote (again) to reopen the government and every Democrat outside of a few sensible moderates will vote to keep it shut,” Vice President JD Vance said ahead of the vote. “This is the basic fact of the shutdown, and no one can deny it.”

Schumer and his fellow Democrats have backed themselves into a corner. Rather than passing the same continuing resolution Democrats have voted for over a dozen times in past spending fights, Schumer is attempting to leverage the shutdown to force Republicans to negotiate on Obama-era health care subsidies.

Democrats even proposed their own competing funding bill, which boasts a $1.5 trillion price tag and would effectively reverse every legislative accomplishment from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In contrast, the Republican-led bill is a clean continuing resolution with a funding anomaly to boost security spending for politicians in light of Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination.

RELATED: Vance makes Jeffries a hilarious promise if Democrats end the shutdown

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

To Democrats’ dismay, their negotiating tactics have proven ineffective. Although the White House has reiterated that the administration would rather reopen the government, President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought are seizing the opportunity.

Ahead of the shutdown, Vought notified federal agencies to begin drafting reduction-in-force notices in anticipation of mass layoffs. Trump and Vought also met Thursday to identify which “Democrat Agencies” would be cut, and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of projects have already been halted by the administration.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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