The nation’s third shutdown in 12 years is once again raising anxiety levels among service members and their families because those in uniform are working without pay. While they would receive back pay once the impasse ends, many military families live paycheck to paycheck.
During previous shutdowns, Congress passed legislation to ensure that troops kept earning their salaries, but time is running out before they miss their first paycheck in less than a week.
That’s definitely been the dynamic in the past, but I think things have finally gotten to the point where Dems are realizing their isn’t much left to lose. Their internal polling and party leadership is telling them to hold fast (arc).
Also, I don’t have the link handy, but there was a KFF poll like last week saying something like 70% of self identified Republicans want the ACA subsidies Dems are fighting for extended. Any way you slice this, it’s a political disaster for the GOP and it’s only going to keep getting worse for them as people’s rent comes due and credit card bills come in and cheap talking points about “extremist terrorist liberal blah blah blah” don’t pay those bills.
The thing to lose is their mega-donors and their future careers as pundits/board members/lobbyists at friendly US Government contracting firms.
Study: Congress literally doesn’t care what you think
American public opinion exists as a bellweather for advertisers and marketing teams. It does not exist to inform public policy but to inform policymakers of what they need to do to reset public opinion (ie, Ban TikTok, greenlight more media consolidation through the FCC, invoke the Espionage Act against whistleblowers, bomb journalists covering a genocide, etc)