On Monday, the last chance to avoid a government shutdown, talks between Republicans and Democrats broke down. Vice President J.D. Vance and House Majority Leader Mike Johnson held a press conference to say that Democrats were being hypocritical “hostage-takers” throughout the talks. Democratic leaders were also suggesting that if the government shut down, it would be the fault of the Republicans.
Vance began by claiming that a shutdown was coming soon because of the ridiculous things that Democrats, who are in the minority, were asking for:
“We don’t always agree…” but that doesn’t mean the government can’t do its job.
“Senate and House Democrats can’t say to the American people, ‘If you don’t do exactly what we want you to do, we’ll shut down your government.'”
“Now we need to remember that they are quite upset. They say they are really upset that this negotiation didn’t happen until today.
“However, if you look at the original proposal for this negotiation, it was a $1.5 trillion spending package that basically told the American people, ‘We plan to spend a lot of money, hundreds of billions of dollars, on the health care of illegal immigrants while Americans are having trouble paying their own health care bills.'”
“We thought it was nuts.” We told them it was ridiculous, and now they’re coming in here and saying, “If you don’t give us everything we want, we’ll shut down the government.” That’s just crazy to us. We think that’s totally wrong.
LOOK:
Vice President @JDVance comes out minutes after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pitched a fit about Republicans not caving to their demands ahead of a government shutdown.
“We have disagreements…but you don’t shut the government… pic.twitter.com/EEfW8A1wGM
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 29, 2025
Shutdown fights are the most boring and pointless things that happen in politics. This is primarily because Democrats figured out how to play both sides and blame Republicans no matter who is really there.
If Democrats want a shutdown, it’s suddenly “Republicans’ fault” for being hard to deal with. People claim Republicans are ruining things if they don’t take bad deals. The GOP will still be blamed if Republicans pass a clean continuing agreement and Democrats kill it. The corporate media continues saying “clown-nose-on, clown-nose-off” to confuse people about who did what.
On the other hand, the Speaker criticized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for making demands that weren’t necessary:
Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are here to stomp their feet and say they can’t agree with this for a reason. They’re trying to bring in things that aren’t important. They came up with a different plan. You should go check out what they wanted. $1.5 trillion in new spending that isn’t part of the current budget process.
You said they wanted to reinstate benefits that taxpayers pay for? Okay, hard-working Americans, they want to take your money and give it to those who are in the nation without permission. They want to bring it back because we got rid of it. They want it. They want to help news organizations that lean to the left. They added $500 million to it and $1.5 trillion to a seven-week plan for temporary spending.
That’s not what we’re going to do. They know we can’t do it, and we never have. The Biden administration said they would shut down 13 times. The Republicans who were in the minority did what was right. We kept the government going. We want the Democrats to do the same thing.
I think it’s incredibly awful that the Democrats would be to blame for the government shutting down.
WATCH:
.@SpeakerJohnson NUKES congressional Democrats for poisoning the well on government funding negotiations:
“Now, there’s a reason that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have come out here stomp the feet, saying that they can’t go along with this. They’re trying to bring in… pic.twitter.com/4yoQvJvHW5
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 29, 2025
Republicans need to keep saying this over and over again. In past shutdown confrontations, the script has always been the same: if a minority doesn’t support a clean continuing resolution, that minority “causes” the shutdown. Why should the rules be different now? If Democrats get to modify the rules, they will be able to rule from the minority by threatening to shut down the government over and over until they get their way on every issue. That’s a clear power grab and a slap in the face to the people who voted for Republicans.
Yes, the polls and the mainstream media will probably point fingers at the GOP. That might happen, but it shouldn’t be the only thing that decides what to do. Giving in to avoid bad headlines only gives Democrats more ammo for the next confrontation. No matter what, Republicans will get a lot of flak. The best thing to do is to stay strong, safeguard the will of the majority, and not let brinkmanship over shutdowns become the norm.