Hamilton
There is an entire section of the Broadway production of Hamilton, The Musical, when the personal tragedies of the central figure overwhelm the show. Hamilton’s torrid sexual affair is discovered by his political opponents, and he counters by publishing all the details in the “Reynolds Pamphlet”. His wife, Elisha, doesn’t leave him, but she cuts him out of her life. Then their oldest son, Phillip, is killed in a duel while defending his father’s good name. That ultimate tragedy brings Alexander and Elisha back together again.
It’s heartbreaking, culminating with the haunting song, “It’s Quiet Uptown”, about living the unimaginable loss of losing a child.
As the audience deals with all of the Hamilton’s personal agony, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison enter the stage. Jefferson pleads to the unseen playwright, speaking for himself and the audience; “Can we get back to politics?” Madison joins in, “Please?”
Rhyming
Sometimes, history “rhymes”. America has been on a roller coaster of emotions from ICE roundups to troops in the city streets. A scandal of massive proportions looms with the EPSTEIN FILES. Then the darling of the MAGA-Republican movement, Charlie Kirk, was brutally shot down on an Utah college campus. The fallout from the assassination is still reverberating, but meanwhile, another shooter opened fire on a Dallas ICE facility. One detainee was killed, two others were wounded. America is stricken with the tragedies, and the steep fall into the chaos of the Trump Administration.
Can we get back to politics, please?
Deadlock
Congress is deadlocked over a looming budget deadline. On September 30th, the government authorization to spend money expires. If there is no new authorization, essentially a law passed by Congress and signed by the President, the government will literally shutdown.
This is a common political issue, regularly dealt with by America’s leaders. But to avoid a shutdown, it requires something very difficult to do in our ultra-polarized world; cooperate. It takes a majority of the House of Representatives, but more importantly, it requires sixty Senators to reach an agreement. In the US Senate, the count stands at 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats. At least seven Democrats are needed to sign onto a deal. Then the President still needs to sign the “bill” into law.
Democrats, in the minority in both Houses of Congress, are making a stand on health care. They are fighting to keep the government support of the Affordable Care Act at the same levels. Republicans plan on cutting that support, likely throwing millions off of government assisted health insurance. The Senate seems nowhere close to reaching some sort of budget deal, though, that’s really not unusual, five full days before the “drop dead” date.
Hard Ball
But the White House is playing an even greater game of political “hard ball”. Today, they’ve threatened to fire thousands of Federal employees if the Democrats refuse to sign off on the health care cuts. The Trump Administration will not only close the government down, they’ll take the opportunity to cut more jobs (after the thousands let go in the DOGE cuts earlier this year).
This is the kind of threat that concerned Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last spring. Back then, he was afraid that shutting down would increase the Presidential power grab that was then just beginning. It will be interesting to see if Schumer will fold again this next week. Perhaps Trump already grabbed the power that Schumer was so worried about.
All of this is nothing new. President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich had a similar standoff back in the 1990’s. And Jimmy Carter famously walked from the White House to the Capitol to resolve a budget standoff back in the 1970’s. But today, there is one significant difference.
What Trump Wants
Past shutdown standoffs always were predicated on the belief that all parties, ultimately, wanted the government to stay open. Government shutdowns are messy. Folks that depend on the government, from healthcare, to payment for government contracts, to the National Parks, get closed down. While Social Security payments (and Medicare, run by a private contractor) continue, many other government functions stop. It’s bad for the country, and bad for the economy.
But there are real questions whether the Trump Administration wants the government to stay open. They are committed to cutting the Federal government to “the bone”. A shutdown may give them the excuse to do that anyway.
It’s back to “normal” politics this week, but with a twist. There’s nothing “normal” about the Trump Administration. A shutdown may be just what they want to do. After all, if Congress can’t do anything, all that’s left is the President, unfettered by Congressional oversight. Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison would roll in their graves about that.
