Guest Editorial: Government Shutdown Proves Republicans Don't Work For The Working Class

Don't be distracted by the blame game, writes Scott Riseley, Trump and GOP gutted healthcare to pay for tax breaks for the rich and now they want Dems to rubber stamp their boondoggle

Members of the Healthcare Preservation Team Scott Riseley, Phil McGuiness, Diane Young and Ashleigh Keyser. Photo by Dominick Bonny.

Guest Editorial by Scott Riseley

On Oct. 1 our federal government shut down. This happened because Republicans and Democrats in Congress could not reach a compromise on the budget. This is simply the latest event in a much longer story, and it makes a lot more sense once you learn more about it.

I am part of the Healthcare Preservation Team, a local group that came together in early 2025 to study the impact that federal funding cuts to Medicaid/Apple Health would have in our area. At that time, Donald Trump and the Republican Party were proposing cuts of $880 billion to Medicaid. What we learned was astounding – he majority of children in our area are on Medicaid, and vital institutions like rural hospitals and retirement homes rely on it to stay open. Other important programs like Early Intervention/Birth to Three and Wraparound with Intensive Services (WISe) depend on it. Medicaid pays for long-term care facilities and housing that a large percentage of our disabled and older adults depend on. We learned that significant cuts to Medicaid will result in many of these residents losing their housing.

We also learned that these cuts had nothing to do with fiscal responsibility and reducing the national deficit because the Republican budget proposal added $3.4 trillion to the national debt by way of major tax breaks for the wealthy. In essence, the proposed budget gutted social services that the working class relies on to fund tax cuts for billionaires. We released our findings in a report entitled, Undermining Rural Health, which can be found here.

Democrats opposed this budget proposal from the beginning, but they didn’t have the numbers in congress to prevent it from passing into law as the so-called, “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” in July. They have not given up, though, and continue to push back to protect working peoples’ healthcare, which brings us to our current crisis.

The Republicans need the Democrats to vote with them on a spending bill to keep the government up and running, but the Democrats have refused to sign the partisan Republican bill unless certain healthcare demands are met. They are demanding that ACA premium tax credits be extended to insure that millions of Americans don’t see their health insurance premiums skyrocket to unaffordable levels, and that congress reverse the tremendous funding cuts to Medicaid in the budget that I described earlier. Both of these demands would greatly benefit working class Americans by maintaining current healthcare coverage and vital services that we all rely on.

Over the past several weeks we have seen Democratic leaders offering to meet with Republicans to negotiate, but the Republicans have been much less open to discussion.

On Sept. 23, Trump cancelled his meeting with Democratic leaders to discuss options to avoid a government shutdown, and later a White House aide shared that Trump “Read all the shit they’re asking for,” and he said, “On second thought, go fuck yourself.”

Trump also instructed federal agencies to fire employees if there is a shut down – in essence holding these people hostage and using their livelihood as a bargaining chip against Democrats.

On Oct. 1 the timeline expired and the government shut down. Right now we find ourselves in a media-frenzy blame game, with both parties blaming the other for the shut down. If one follows the events, though, it is easy to see who really is responsible for this crisis, and that is Donald Trump and the Republicans. They are the ones who are ripping away healthcare from millions of Americans, and they are the ones who have refused to negotiate a compromise. This government shut down is just the latest part of a much longer story. If the Republicans win out, then we will see the devastating effects of their spending bill start to impact our lives with skyrocketing healthcare costs, hospital closures, and deaths. If the Democrats win, however, we will see kids keep their health insurance and our older adults keep their housing.

Moreover, we will see that the nascent Donald Trump Dictatorship is not invincible and that we do have a voice and that even his cruelty and greed can be checked.

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The opinions shared in this article are the author’s and do not necessary reflect the views and opinions of DB Reports.

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