The risk for political leaders in Washington when the federal government shuts down is that voters will punish them for it in the next election. The first shutdown since 2018 began on Wednesday. Democrats in Congress blocked the latest spending bill unless Republicans agreed to extend funding for the Affordable Care Act and reverse recent cuts to other health care programs like Medicare.
So whom will Americans blame for much of their government grinding to a halt? Interviews with voters suggest that they may hold both parties at least somewhat responsible.
Republican voters, who control both chambers of Congress and the presidency, were more likely to blame both parties. And some Democratic voters worried about how their party, which has struggled to find its political footing, will fare once the shutdown is over.
‘Our government is like 2-year-olds.’
Rachel Uecker, 53, Wickenburg, Ariz.
Rachel Uecker, a Republican voter in rural western Arizona, voted for Mr. Trump three times but said she blamed both parties for the shutdown.
“Our government is like 2-year-olds,” she said. “It’s like dealing with my grandkids — I take your toy and you take mine.”
Ms. Uecker said she was unlikely to be affected by the shutdown. She and her family all work in the private sector, and she is not worried about interrupted services at national parks, she said, because she prefers riding horses on her 80-acre property to visiting public parks.
She opposed Democratic plans to spend $1 trillion to extend Obamacare subsidies and other health care spending, saying that she had long detested Obamacare because her family’s out-of-pocket costs had gone up dramatically after the law passed. But mostly, the shutdown drama felt like watching a dreary rerun.
“They do this every year, it seems like,” she said of Republicans and Democrats in Washington. “They’re both pigheaded. Eventually they’re going to work a deal. Like they always do.”
— Jack Healy
‘It just kind of feels like everyone is losing.’
Thien Doan, 36, Orange, Calif.
Back in March, Thien Doan, who voted for former Vice President Harris, was among many liberal Americans frustrated that Democrats had not pressured Republicans to make concessions when it was time to extend government funding. But now that the government has shut down as Democratic senators block the Republican funding plan, Mr. Doan isn’t convinced that his party is making the right move.
“It just kind of feels like everyone is losing,” he said. “The Democrats should have really put up a fight when they had that chance. But now, it’s like they’re backtracking.”
Mr. Doan is concerned that the Trump administration will move ahead with threats to lay off more federal workers, potentially causing problems for his elderly parents, who depend on social security, Medicare and Medicaid. He’s also worried that there would be disruptions to plane travel and delays in getting a late tax refund he expects from the I.R.S.
“I just see things getting worse if we have less workers,” he said.
And he finds himself confused about whether Democrats’ move will amount to an effective political strategy.
“I don’t know how much of a chance they have of winning,” he said.
— Laurel Rosenhall
‘Unless we make these very unpopular cuts, we are going to enter a debt spiral.’
Charles Vaughters, 25, Laramie, Wyo.
Charles Vaughters, a college student and Marine veteran who voted for Mr. Trump, isn’t sure which party is to blame for the shutdown. Both sides are being unnecessarily stubborn, he said.
“I personally find the Democrats’ demands to be a little bit unreasonable,” he said of their stance on health care funding. When it comes to Mr. Trump’s threats of mass layoffs, Mr. Vaughters is on his side, agreeing that the government has grown too big.
“Trump is being boisterous and a little bit uncouth,” he said, but “unless we make these very unpopular cuts, we are going to enter a debt spiral.”
While he said he was morally against making cuts to programs like Medicaid, he said they were necessary to preserve those programs.
“There’s going to be no Medicaid at some point if we continue down this spending path,” he said.
Mr. Vaughters said he was a little nervous, however, about how the shutdown might affect him personally. His main income for college comes from the G.I. Bill of Rights, and he receives disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is worried that those payments will be affected if the shutdown continues. But he’s trying to remain hopeful.
“I would wager that in the next couple weeks,” he said, “they’ll probably come to some form of compromise as pressure mounts.”
— Juliet Macur
‘The president does not seem interested in negotiating.’
Clifford Eugene, 74, Lacombe, La.
In April, three months into Mr. Trump’s second term, Clifford Eugene had an urgent talk with his two adult sons, both contractors for the federal government. He warned them that the deep political divide would probably keep Congress from agreeing on spending priorities.
At the time, Mr. Eugene, who voted for Ms. Harris, predicted the government would shut down in the coming months.
“I anticipated the shutdown because the temperature in Washington, D.C., is not conducive to compromise and the president does not seem interested in negotiating,” said Mr. Eugene, 74, a longtime Democrat. “I told my sons they needed to prepare for a shutdown.”
Both of his sons were furloughed on Wednesday.
“We don’t know how long this is going to last,” Mr. Eugene said. “If it stretches for months, my wife and I would have to help pitch in and help financially.”
Mr. Eugene used to work as a bank examiner for the Treasury Department, but his agency was not affected during previous shutdowns. He blames the current shutdown squarely on Mr. Trump and Republican members of Congress.
“The truth is Republicans are fundamentally opposed to supporting the nation’s safety nets and supporting the middle class,” he said, referring to the Democrats’ health care demands.
— Audra D. S. Burch
‘You start to become numb to it.’
Brian D. Kozlowski, 41, Orlando, Fla.
Brian D. Kozlowski, who voted for President Trump, said he blamed politicians — “all of them,” both Republicans and Democrats — for the shutdown.
“It just seems typical politics as usual that seems to occur every administration, regardless of which party is controlling it, especially around midterms,” he said, recalling the 1995 shutdown when Newt Gingrich was the Republican House speaker. “You start to become numb to it because it really does seem like it’s same old, same old.”
The impasse does little more than fuel his irritation toward the political system, he said. There’s “a frustrating consistency in squabbling American politicians,” he added.
Mr. Kozlowski said that he understood the “plight” of federal employees during a shutdown but that he was not worried about being personally affected. “It’ll get resolved because that’s how it always gets done: Somebody caves,” he said.
— Patricia Mazzei
‘If they have to go, they have to go.’
Naomi Villalba, 75, Dallas
Naomi Villalba, a Republican who has voted for Mr. Trump three times, said she blamed Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, for the government shutdown.
The extension of Obamacare subsidies and the reversal of Medicaid and Medicare cuts that Democrats have demanded are “a bridge too far,” she said. Ms. Villalba said she believed that Democrats were pushing for undocumented immigrants to have access to health care. The current Democratic proposal does not provide free health care for unauthorized immigrants.
But she also believes that laying off some government employees — as Mr. Trump is promising if Democrats don’t come to the table — might be a good thing.
“If you are able to be gone for a week from your job, and it’s not going to cause anything major, then you probably shouldn’t be there anyway,” she said.
One thing Ms. Villalba didn’t agree with Mr. Trump on, though, was when he taunted Democrats by displaying “Trump 2028” hats while negotiating in the Oval Office.
“I wish he would not say anything about 2028,” she said. “I don’t like it. I think he needs to quit after four years — he’s got a good bench underneath him. I think that is pushing things a little too far.”
— Christina Morales
‘You can’t use American citizens as pawns in this political game.’
Sam Consiglio, 22, Seattle
After the government shut down this week, Sam Consiglio, a graduate student at the University of Washington, where she is studying urban planning, researched the last shutdown in 2018: It lasted for 35 days. “That is a month of time in which you don’t know when this is going to end,” she said.
Ms. Consiglio blames Mr. Trump. “It is his job to be the leader of this country and have the two sides come together to find a solution,” she said. Instead, she sees “a lack of leadership.”
The threatened mass layoffs and the program cuts strike her as political pressure, not problem-solving. “You can’t use American citizens as pawns in this political game,” she said.
She also agrees with Democrats’ efforts to fund health care programs. Health care is an important issue for her generation, she said, adding that her social media feeds regularly show GoFundMe campaigns for basic medical procedures.
“If something were to happen and you don’t have funds to fix it,” she said, “your life would be completely derailed.”
— Kurt Streeter
The post 7 Americans Tell Us Whom They Blame for the Shutdown appeared first on New York Times.
