Letter to the editor: Trump's shutdown

First published in the Brunswick Beacon, 10.09.25

When Biden faced a possible shutdown Trump said, “Shutdowns hurt the person who’s president.” Trump understood that drivers get tickets, not passengers, because drivers are in control. Biden prevented a shutdown. Trump didn’t. Trump gets the ticket for this shutdown because he’s in the driver’s seat.

Republicans control the House of Representatives 219-213 and the Senate 53-47. Legislation usually needs 60 votes to pass the Senate, and Democrats offered to back Republicans’ spending bill if Trump restored the healthcare funding he cut to give tax breaks to billionaires. Trump’s cuts will cost 179 million Americans with employment-based coverage hundreds of dollars annually and strip Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage from 15 million Americans, including 663,000 North Carolinians, according to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).

Trump refused Democrats’ offer. A White House official said, “He read all the [expletive] they’re asking for, and he said, ‘on second thought, go [expletive] yourself.’” Trump drove that message home by posting two racist, fake, AI-generated videos of House Democratic Leader Jeffries with a sombrero and mustache.

Trump said, “We need to get Republican votes, that’s all,” and “I hold all the levers, and all the cards.” Republicans proved that when they scrapped the Senate’s 60-vote rule three times this year: to weaken electric vehicle standards, pass Trump’s billionaire tax cuts and confirm 48 Trump nominees. Republicans would have happily scrapped it again on Trump’s say-so.

Instead, Trump said, “A lot of good can come from shutdowns. We can get rid of a lot of things we don’t want. They’d be Democrat things. We can do things that are irreversible, that are bad for them. We can do things, medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people.”

Trump refused to work with Democrats to protect your healthcare or tell Senate Republicans to scrap the 60-vote requirement because the shutdown lets him cut “Democrat things” he doesn’t want, like your healthcare. He said so himself.

Kristine Garrity

Calabash