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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

What’s at Stake in the Government Shutdown

 The U.S. Capitol Visitors Center is closed to visitors during the federal government shut down on October 01, 2025 in Washington, DC. The government shut down early Wednesday after Congress failed to reach a funding deal. ( (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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The US Capitol Visitors Center is closed to visitors during the federal government shutdown on October 1, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Via Getty Images)

For Democrats in Washington, the pencils all lack erasers and none of the calculators have a minus button. It’s always addition, never subtraction. The Biden-Schumer-Pelosi spending surge generated the highest inflation in 40 years, the highest interest rates since the subprime crisis, and the loss of the White House, Senate and House. Democrats still insist on no reductions in the post-pandemic spending that fueled their defeat.

Demands to increase healthcare spending are a charade to mask the Democrats’ fury over Republican tax reductions and spending cuts. After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act extended the 2017 tax cut, at a projected cost of $4.5 trillion, and cut spending by $1 trillion, Democratic activists insisted on a futile gesture. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has obliged, shutting down the government and calling the new law the “Mount Rushmore of fiscally irresponsible bills.”

Read in The Wall Street Journal.