On the 15th local time, the U.S. federal government "shut down" entered its third week.

On this day, the Senate tried for the ninth time to pass a provisional appropriation bill without success, raising concerns about whether it would move towards the "longest shutdown."

On this day, although the executive order signed by US President Trump avoided the embarrassment of arrears of military wages, the pain caused by "closing the door" was continuously spreading from the government system to people's daily life.

On this day, the judge of the U.S. Federal District Court banned the Trump administration from laying off employees during the "shutdown", but the judicial offensive seemed unable to restrain the tough attitude of the "imperial president".

What is the crux of the long delay of this "shutdown"? What deep problems are exposed in American politics? How will this "coward game" with the theme of party struggle end?

"Schumer Lockout" VS "Trump Lockout"

The U.S. federal government's "shutdown" began on October 1. As of the 15th, the deadlock has dragged on to its third week, and the two parties are still "shaking the blame" for each other.

Open the official website of the White House, and you can see a line hanging at the top of the homepage-"How long did the Democratic Party shut down the government". The Republican Party shows political disputes naked to the world by timing accurately to the second.

Senior Republicans also nicknamed this "shutdown" "Schumer's shutdown", pointing the finger at Senate minority leader and Democrat Schumer.

The Democratic Party has also seen the recruitment trick.They countered the government shutdown should be called the "Trump shutdown."After the 15th ninth veto of the temporary allocation, the Democratic Party stated "will not be frightened by the threat of Trump."

Some Democrats say the two parties are highly suspicious of each other at the moment. Accepting the Republican's promise of "restarting the government first, then talking about medical subsidies" is no different than making the Democratic Party Charlie Brown, who is repeatedly played in the "Snoopy" comic book series, while the Republican is Lucy who follows football.

The protracted deadlock is causing concern among the ruling and opposition parties. Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that this "shutdown" may become the longest in American history.

¡°clean¡± vs ¡°dirty¡±

Where is the ¡°stop¡± continuous syndrome?

Diao Daming, Professor, School of International Studies, Renmin University of ChinaFrom the surface point of view, the core differences such as health insurance spending have not been resolved.

Democrats insist on adding additional clauses on the medical insurance budget to the interim budget, while Republicans insist on ending the government's "shutdown" before negotiating the medical insurance budget.

The Republican Party hopes to pass a "clean" (that is, no additional irrelevant clauses) short-term appropriation bill, which is pointed at the nose by the Democratic Party and called "dirty".

Statistics show that in several votes, the gap between the 60-vote "threshold" has not narrowed, and moderate Democratic senators have not softened their attitude so far.

From a deep perspective, it is related to the deterioration of the political ecology of the two parties.

Since the U.S. Congress officially implemented the budget process in 1976, the two parties have regarded the "shutdown" of the government as a crisis that may lead to public criticism and should be avoided as much as possible, and jointly resolved this crisis. But this political ecology changed significantly by Trump's first term.

¡°In 2018, Trump clearly used the government¡¯s ¡®shutdown¡¯ as a tool to pressure Democrats to force their opponents to agree to a border wall,¡± Todd said, adding that in Trump¡¯s eyes, the ¡®shutdown¡¯ was not a common crisis between the two parties, but a crisis between opponents.

This year's situation is even more serious-not only is Trump viewing it as a tool for party strife, but Democrats are also using it to put pressure on Republicans.

¡°The Democratic Party lost last year¡¯s general election, and almost a year after the Republican party united both houses, finally found a way to balance, counteract Trump, find a chance to rebuild political influence and unite within the party.¡±

"Slash" VS "Unity"

Diao Daming believes that the new round of struggle between the two parties around the "shutdown" of the government is quite different from the past, which is reflected not only in the political ecological level, but also in the specific actions of the two parties.

On the Republican side, Trump is using the ¡°stop-down¡± to intensify the offensive and ¡°remove the Democrats.¡±

He used the "shutdown" to advance the federal government's layoff plan (a large number of which targeted Democrats). Since the shutdown, 4108 government employees have been fired, and approximately 900,000 federal employees have been forced to take unpaid leave.

He rallied against the Democratic-dominated regional project, ending 223 energy projects in 16 states.

It has been commented that punitive measures such as the "permanent dismissal" revealed the huge differences between the two parties' game and the past, and also pushed the "stop" to a more destructive stage, in the context of the most radical attempt of a president in modern history to impose unconstrained power."

On the Democratic side, it is showing a ¡°rare solidarity.¡±

The Democratic Party has repeatedly "conceded" in the confrontation with the Republican Party before, resulting in a sharp decline in the support rate. It is hoped that this "shutdown fight" will save the support rate and seek momentum for next year's mid-term elections.

Trump's approach is more not to fight the "shutdown", but to fight the "government", not to restore government functions, but to reduce government functions, which is very different from the past. and the Democratic Party in the past has no hand over the various extreme practices of Trump, finally has the opportunity to promote unity, will do everything possible to the party's goals, also to increase the two parties hostility and opposition atmosphere.

Local Crisis vs Global Crisis

The impact of the "lockdown" for more than two weeks is extending beyond the scope of federal workers and stinging the wider public. With the stagnation of many public services, vulnerable groups bear the brunt of the impact, and international tourists and other groups are also affected.

In the transportation field, the shortage of air traffic controllers has caused large-scale flight delays. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy revealed that the "shutdown" forced air traffic controllers to work unpaid. They had to worry about paying bills while ensuring flight safety, and even considered part-time jobs to support their families.

In terms of the social assistance system, the U.S. Department of Taxation has stopped consulting taxpayers, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Transportation approval stagnated, and the ¡°food bank¡± that relies on federal funds is also in trouble. Philadelphia¡¯s ¡°sharing food program¡± has lost $8.5 million in federal support, making it increasingly difficult to provide aid to the hungry population.

In terms of information services, the release of key data such as the employment report and the consumer price index has been delayed, and the "data blind zone" in U.S. economic decisions has also caused trouble to the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is considering a decrease in interest rates in October, and has intensified market volatility.

In addition, staff vital to national security and the protection of government property continue to work without pay. On the 15th, although Trump signed an order instructing the Pentagon to "use any funds in congressional appropriations that can still be spent in fiscal year 2026" to pay military salaries, how to pay salaries at the end of the month remains a question mark.

There are comments that the pain of the U.S. shutdown is shifting from ¡°local shutdown, interruption of processes¡± to ¡°personnel dismissal, public safety risks, research disruption, trust crisis¡± etc. U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent warned on the 15th that the shutdown causes the U.S. economy daily losses of up to $15 billion.

Diao Daming pointed out that the losses from this "shutdown" may be higher than in 2013. More people are taking unpaid leave, resulting in comprehensive problems such as air control flaws and delayed data release. "After the absence of government functions, the United States has been exposed to a fragile state prone to crisis."

Rules Consensus vs ¡°Nuclear Options¡±

When this farce will end, the outside world has no answer. But Trump is not chaotic enough, and will announce the list of cut "Democratic projects" on the 17th...

The latest poll showed that more U.S. respondents initially blamed the government on the Republicans, but this week more and more people started blaming the Democrats, with the gap starting to shrink.

The latest U.S. New York Times and Siena Academy poll showed that two-thirds of respondents believe that the country is seriously divided and has been unable to solve their own problems.

Diao Daming believes that the way to solve the problem in the future may be that public grievances accumulate to a certain extent, and the Democratic Party chooses a compromise plan after feeling greater pressure, but it seems that it is not this time now.

"This crisis has also exposed a deep problem in American politics." Diao Daming pointed out, "American politics seems to be based on the Constitution and laws, but its actual operation is often based on the rules and norms based on the Constitution and laws. However, with the intensification of party struggles since 'Trump 1.0', everyone has found that these rules are gone. The'nuclear options'that were talked about in American politics in the past, such as closing doors and impeachment, have now become common."

"If basic standards are missing, and both parties only act based on their own understanding of the bottom-line constitutional framework, then there is no doubt that the polarization of partisanship will increase, and both sides will be more unscrupulous." Diao Daming said that this extreme operation will become more dangerous.

(Editor's email: ylq@jfdaily.com)

Original title: "Depth | Burn 15 billion a day! The US government's" shutdown "has entered its third week. When will the farce stop?"

Column editor: Yang Li Group Text editor: Yang Li Group Source: Xinhua Agency

Source: The Liberation Daily