§90 —
On the shutdown
Democrat
$500,000
Here is what the 43 days bought. The promised vote came on December 11, 2025, and failed 51 to 48 1. The credits, used by more than 22 million people, expired at the end of 2025 1. Benchmark silver premiums rose 26 percent for 2026 and 13 percent for 2027, and paid enrollment was down 2.6 million by February 2. The budget office put output lost at $11 billion for a six-week shutdown, in a range of $7 billion to $14 billion that "cannot be recovered" 3. October's household survey was never collected, so that month's unemployment rate does not exist 4.
One item in the bill paid better. Added by the Senate's majority leader at members' request, it let senators sue for "up to $500,000 in damages for each violation" if their phone records were seized without notice 5. The House voted 426 to 0 to nullify it 5, then voted again in January to strip it 6. He signed the repeal February 3, 83 days after the clause became law 7. Nobody had to hold out to get it in.
Sources
- Both bills "blocked by 51-48 votes"; more than 22 million people benefit from the credits, which expire at the end of 2025 — Fox 35 Orlando, 11 December 2025 ↑
- Benchmark silver premiums up 26 percent from 2025 to 2026 and 13 percent for 2027; effectuated enrollment down 12 percent, 2.6 million, by February 2026 — KFF, 30 October 2026 ↑
- CBO: $7 billion at four weeks, $11 billion at six, $14 billion at eight; that lost output "cannot be recovered" — Government Executive, 29 October 2025 ↑
- "Household survey data were not collected for October 2025 due to the lapse in appropriations" — Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16 December 2025 ↑
- "Up to $500,000 in damages for each violation"; added by the majority leader at the request of several members; House voted 426-0 to nullify — CNN via KTVZ, 19 November 2025 ↑
- The House unanimously added the repeal to a $1.2 trillion funding package on 22 January 2026 — Fox News, 22 January 2026 ↑
- Repeal of the provision signed into law on 3 February 2026 in the appropriations package — Office of Sen. Martin Heinrich ↑
Republican
SHUTDOWN
The name was settled early. On October 29, 2025, under the headline "Democrat Shutdown Already Costing Billions in Lost Economic Growth," the chairman of the House Budget Committee called it "the Schumer shutdown" and wrote: "Democrats say they shut down the government to help Americans, but this Halloween they're all trick and no treat" 1. The government stayed closed from October 1 through November 12 2.
Give the word its due. The chairman cited the Congressional Budget Office, and the office's arithmetic was real: six weeks, 1.5 percentage points off the quarter's growth 1. The party that held out did not get what it held out for. The deal came from a small group of Senate moderates, and Democrats came away with a vote on their proposal 3. The name stuck to one side of the aisle. Parts of it closed again in 2026, twice 45. The current stopgap, passed 370 to 48, runs through December 11 6.
Sources
- "Democrat Shutdown Already Costing Billions in Lost Economic Growth"; "the Schumer shutdown"; "all trick and no treat"; six weeks means growth 1.5 percentage points lower — House Budget Committee, 29 October 2025 ↑
- "The lapse in appropriations lasted from October 1 through November 12, 2025" — Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16 December 2025 ↑
- Democrats got a vote on their proposal as part of a deal "struck by a small group of Senate moderates to reopen the federal government after a 43-day shutdown"; both plans "failed to get the 60 votes needed" — ABC via 6abc, December 2025 ↑
- Parts of the government "ran out of money"; package passed 217 to 214 and signed 3 February 2026 — KPBS/NPR, 3 February 2026 ↑
- Homeland Security's spending authority expired 14 February 2026; 76 days later, on 30 April, "the longest shutdown of a federal department in U.S. history" ended — CBS News, 30 April 2026 ↑
- The House passed the stopgap 370-48; it funds the government through 11 December — Government Executive, 1 September 2026 ↑
“My brother-in-law closed his hardware store for six weeks once to make a point to the landlord. I forget the point. I remember the invoice. So I wrote this one out. Forty-three days. Eleven billion at six weeks, the budget office said, the part that doesn't come back. A subsidy vote, fifty-one to forty-eight, no. An October unemployment rate, never collected. A right for senators to sue for up to five hundred thousand dollars, added, then repealed. Sorry, one thing before you go. Of those four lines, which one was written by the people holding the pen?”— Lou
“Shutdown. Sounds like somebody hit a switch. Forty-three days. What came out the other end was a vote on the health subsidies, and it lost fifty-one to forty-eight, so your benchmark premium went up twenty-six percent and then thirteen more. And you know who walked out of that same bill with something? Senators. Up to five hundred grand a violation if somebody pulls their phone records. Nobody writes that line by accident. The House voted 426 to nothing to take it back, which tells you how it read in daylight, and by February it was gone. The next switch is December 11.”
“The shutdown was a success for everyone who wasn't in it, and the senators' provision was a simple privacy measure, available to any American with a Senate seat and a subpoena.”