Well, it’s over. The longest shutdown of the imperial government in history is over. Things should start getting back to normal in Washington (dysfunctional and stupid), and the Democrats, I have to say, came out of this looking like real chumps. In a VIP piece over at RedState, my friend and colleague Bob Hoge writes:
What exactly did the Democrats accomplish? I can tell you:
Nada. Zilch. Zip. Niente. Nothing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-4) summed it up nicely:
The peaceful sunset outside my office window tonight is a reminder to me that God still has His hand of blessing over our nation. Thankfully, after 42 long days, we will soon get our vote to finally end the painful Democrat Shutdown — and get the American government open and… pic.twitter.com/6qrsDcW2V6
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) November 12, 2025
Bob continues:
What was it all for? The Democrats will tell you the Republicans just want to kill everybody and nuke their healthcare, but in reality, if Obamacare was all that, why are we still needing to subsidize it to such a crazy extent? In their useless shutdown, which mostly just caused pain for regular Americans like TSA security officers, air traffic controllers, and SNAP recipients, they were demanding a three-year extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, which would have cost about $65–70 billion over that period.
If Obamacare was such a big “f**ing deal,” Joe Biden, why isn’t it working better?
I couldn’t possibly have said that any better myself.
House Republicans and Democrats each proposed their own plans to end this mess, but both were voted down, leading to the lapse in funding for numerous federal agencies. Democrats pushed hard for policy concessions, particularly an extension of enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These credits were set to expire at the end of the year, and honestly never should have been put in place at all; if Obamacare was that great, it shouldn’t have to be subisdized. Chuck Schumer framed this as a critical issue for working families – it’ isn’t – and refused to support any funding bill without addressing it. Well, in the end, 
that’s what happend.
The final deal was a short-term compromise. It included bipartisan spending bills to fund areas like food aid, veterans’ programs, agriculture, and the legislative branch, while extending funding for all other departments until the end of January 2026. This allowed time for further negotiations on full-year appropriations. And much good may that do anyone.
It also omitted the ACA tax credit extension that Democrats had demanded, which were, remember, slated to expire at the end of this years. Instead, Democrats secured only a vague promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a vote on the issue in December—far from a guaranteed outcome, as the maximum effective range of a promise in Washington is about three inches.
Eight Democratic senators crossed party lines to support the bill, which really the party’s base and progressive wing, who viewed the agreement as a capitulation with no tangible gains. And, they aren’t wrong.
So, back to normal – until the next cluster-foulup. At least Mrs. Animal and I should be able to go see our grandkids this holiday season without being stranded in an airport somewhere.
