Trump sets deadline for permanent government firings

Donald Trump wants the government back open, and deals have been put on the table that should have worked. They didn’t, and now Trump is furious, and when Trump is upset, it's no holds barred.

To that point, Trump put Democrats on the clock that if this shutdown is not over within a few days, he is going to start mass firings in the government, and it will all be on Democrats.

Dems are cracking

As my readers know, I was fully behind the GOP offering to pass stand-alone legislation to extend the healthcare subsidies.

I think someone in DC was reading because the GOP offered Dems the exact package I suggested, offering to extend the tax cuts for another year, only House Minority Leader Jeffries (D-N.Y.) balked at the idea.

He responded, "A one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits is not acceptable. It's a nonstarter. What world are these MAGA extremists living in right now to think that Democrats are going to go along with a one-year extension from a group of people, meaning the Republicans, who just permanently extended massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors?"

Not everyone in the Democrat caucus felt the same way, as 11 Democrats wanted to take this win, accept the legislation, and get the government back open.

Rejected

Another bill was floated to pay the military during the shutdown, but Speaker Johnson (R-LA) rejected that bill because he wants everyone to get paid.

Johnson stated, “House Democrats … are clamoring to get back here and have another vote because some of them want to get on record and say they’re for paying the troops.”

But as I noted, he is trying to get the government back open, stating, “We already had that vote. Every Republican and at least one Democrat had the common sense to say, ‘Of course, we want the government to stay in operation. Of course, we want to pay our troops and our air traffic controllers and our Border Patrol agents, TSA, and everybody else.’”

I hate the fact that people are working and not getting paid, but this was nothing more than another cheap stunt by Democrats. You want to fix this? Once this shutdown is over, pass legislation that covers all necessary workers during a shutdown, but don’t use our military as a prop to score political points.

Clock is ticking

Trump has been adamant that if this shutdown goes on for any length of time, he is going to trim the government by firing, en masse, government workers.

When Trump was asked when this would take place, he responded, “I’ll be able to tell you that in four or five days. If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back. You’re going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget.”

Trump was pressed on eliminating government programs, and he responded, “Oh, sure. We have a lot, I’m not going to tell you, but we’ll be announcing it pretty soon. But we have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate. You know, one of the things that we have as some advantage, you could say, but because of the shutdown, which I think they made a big mistake, we’re able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse, and they’ve handed it, you know, to us on a silver platter.”

I am not sure if people will buy it, but the administration will push this all on Democrats and say it never would have happened without the shutdown. Hardcore Democrats will be furious, hardcore conservatives will love it, but the question is, how will moderates and independent voters perceive this, because that is what is going to decide who wins the House in 2026 and the White House in 2028.