{"id":19047,"date":"2025-10-26T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=19047"},"modified":"2025-10-26T21:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T03:34:05","slug":"op-ed-the-schumer-shutdown-targets-american-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/op-ed-the-schumer-shutdown-targets-american-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: The Schumer Shutdown Targets American Families"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I have to admit I\u2019m of two minds on the federal government shutdown. On one hand, our government is too big, too pervasive, and too entwined in our daily lives. Our Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew that the federal government now employs millions of people and regulates nearly every facet of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is it really such a bad thing to shut that down once in a while?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, there are certain functions that are right and proper for our government to perform. Defending our country is a prime example\u2014the men and women who put on the uniform of the United States Military deserve our full support. I know this shutdown is hurting not only military families but also air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, and even congressional staffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the shutdown continues into November, 134,000 SNAP recipients in Idaho will lose access to their benefits. While I\u2019m sure there are people on welfare programs who shouldn\u2019t be, there are also many with genuine needs. It will be up to communities to step up and help their neighbors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The shutdown could end today if Democrats would do their job. Republicans in the House passed a clean continuing resolution to fund the proper functions of government more than a month ago, but Democrats in the Senate continue to filibuster, preventing it from moving forward. They claim to care about the families affected by this shutdown, but their actions tell a different story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They even admit this is about political gamesmanship. Just the other day, Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the Democratic whip, said, \u201cOf course there will be families that are going to suffer\u2026 but it is one of the few leverage times we have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate\u2019s Democratic leader, said it even more bluntly: \u201cEvery day gets better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let that sink in\u2014Democrats think playing politics is more important than families paying their mortgages and putting food on the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s so important that Democrats are filibustering a clean continuing resolution Let\u2019s see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They want to raise your taxes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They want to give free healthcare to illegal aliens.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They want to further increase the national debt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Democratic platform could well be described as \u201cAmericans last.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s time for Chuck Schumer, Katherine Clark, and the rest of the minority party to stop the political games and reopen our government. End the filibuster, pass the clean CR, and get back to serving the American people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have to admit I\u2019m of two minds on the federal government shutdown. On one hand, our government is too big, too pervasive, and too entwined in our daily lives. Our Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves if they knew that the federal government now employs millions of people and regulates nearly every [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":18468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[823],"class_list":["post-19047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions-op-eds","tag-government-shutdown","cat-243-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19048,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19047\/revisions\/19048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}