The House passed a straightforward CR on September 19 by a 217-212 vote, extending funding through November 21 at Fiscal Year 2025 levels—no frills, no riders, just a bridge to negotiate the full 12 appropriations bills later. This “clean” approach, endorsed by President Trump, would avert chaos for veterans, law enforcement, and everyday families while buying time for real reforms. However, in the Senate, Schumer and his allies have repeatedly blocked it, demanding a lengthy list of add-ons that would significantly increase the deficit and solidify progressive priorities. Their shorter-term counterproposal, through October 31, tacks on a permanent extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies—costing $350 billion over a decade, per Republican estimates—and over $1 trillion in broader health program expansions, including Medicaid tweaks that open the door to subsidies for undocumented immigrants.
September 28, 2025: “There is NOTHING partisan in the CLEAN CR... Democrats want to give free health care to ILLEGAL ALIENS...”-Speaker Mike Johnson
“Every single bit of this was entirely avoidable,” House Speaker Mike Johnson thundered at a press conference on October 1, slamming Democrats for refusing the clean CR they themselves passed 13 times under President Biden.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been equally blunt, pleading for just five more Democratic votes to break the filibuster: “All it takes to reopen the government is cooperation from just five more Senate Democrats... There are clearly cracks on their side of the aisle.”
Three Democrats—Sens. John Fetterman (PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), and independent Angus King (ME) defied their party on October 1, voting for the GOP plan.
But Schumer’s socialist squad—AOC, Bernie Sanders, and their ilk—remains dug in, turning what should be routine funding into a weaponized standoff. At the heart of the conservative fury are the “abusive, wasteful programs” Democrats are shamefully fighting to resurrect.
Leading the charge is Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, the fiscal hawk whose folksy takedowns of D.C. bloat have gone viral. On the Senate floor last Friday, Kennedy laid bare the Democrats’ demands, accusing them of holding the government “hostage” to restore millions in “spending porn”—his signature term for taxpayer-funded absurdities. “Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez got very, very upset, as did the socialist wing of the party, when the president sent over what’s called a rescission package,” Kennedy said. “Basically, President Trump just said we want you to take some stuff out of the budget that we think is wasteful, and we did.”
He rattled off examples from Trump’s $9.4 billion rescissions package, which Democrats now want reinstated: $3 million for an Iraqi “Sesame Street,” $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia, $500,000 for electric buses in Rwanda, and $67,000 to feed insect powder to kids in Madagascar. “Under former President Joe Biden, our federal government agreed to spend” on these “deeply weird, woke” projects, Kennedy wrote in a scorching New York Post op-ed. “If my colleagues still think this spending is necessary, they should vote no on his request. But here on planet Earth, the American people know they could be spending this money far better.”
In February, he praised Trump’s “prosecution” of waste: “These are the same people who have chosen to support illegal immigration over the rule of law... teachers’ unions over parents and kids... criminals over cops and victims.”
The senator’s point? Democrats’ CR demands aren’t about compassion—they’re about perpetuating a bloated bureaucracy that prioritizes globalist handouts over American priorities like border security and tax relief. Other conservatives echo Kennedy’s rage at the “absurd waste” and Democratic “games.” Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a leading voice against omnibus monstrosities, has blasted Schumer’s tactics as “obstruction” straight from the “far-left wish list,” tying the shutdown to Democrats’ refusal to cut $1.1 billion from NPR and PBS—”politically biased and activist media systems, at taxpayers’ expense.”
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-VA) called the ACA push a “Trojan horse” for socialism: “Democrats are willing to furlough 900,000 federal workers just to subsidize their failing healthcare scheme—it’s absurd.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) mocked the impasse on X: “Schumer’s playing shutdown chicken while families suffer. Pass the clean CR and stop the games.”
The White House piled on, noting the CR maintains spending “50% more than in 2019” without a dime in cuts—yet Democrats cry crisis.
Democrats’ socialist arm sees the shutdown as leverage to embed irreversible spending, from ACA expansions that could add $662 billion to the deficit over 10 years (per CBO) to clawbacks on Trump’s tax cuts.
The result? Delayed IRS refunds, stalled disaster aid, and economic drag are estimated at $1-2 billion daily.
Polls show blame tilting toward Democrats, with 68% of independents siding with the clean CR.
Enough is enough. The American people didn’t elect a Congress to fund bug burgers in Madagascar or prop up failing entitlements—they want results. President Trump has provided the blueprint: Cut the waste, secure the border, and rebuild from within.
Now, it’s time for Congress to deliver. Call your senators today. Tell them: Pass a clean CR free of socialist wasteful spending. Demand they side with fiscal sanity over Schumer’s games. Lines are open—make your voice heard before military paychecks bounce on October 15 and the pain deepens. America deserves better than this D.C. circus.
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