On Monday, Republicans and Democrats convened in a last attempt to prevent a government shutdown, but the outcome was not promising. Vice President JD Vance and House Majority Leader Mike Johnson held a press conference condemning the hypocritical maneuvering in play, while Democratic leaders maintain that Republicans will be at fault for any resulting disruption.

Vance led things off, laying out that a shutdown appears imminent. 

Vice President @JDVance made an appearance shortly after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Republicans for not conceding to their demands before a potential government shutdown.

“We have disagreements…but you don’t shut the government… pic.twitter.com/EEfW8A1wGM

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 29, 2025

VANCE: “You don’t hold the American people hostage by declaring that if they don’t comply with the exact wishes of Senate and House Democrats, their government will be shut down.” That’s precisely what they’re proposing. We must acknowledge their frustration, claiming discontent that negotiations have only begun today.

Examining the initial phase of their negotiation, it involved a $1.5 trillion spending plan, effectively telling Americans, “We intend to allocate massive funds, running into hundreds of billions, to healthcare for illegal aliens while Americans struggle with their healthcare expenses.”

This was their first move in the negotiation. We thought it was nonsensical, we told them as much, and now their stance is, “If you don’t concede to our demands fully, we will shut down the government.”

Confrontations over shutdowns are arguably the most tedious political exercises, largely because Democrats have often managed to argue both sides depending on current leadership. The prevailing assumption seems to be that a shutdown is always attributed to Republicans, regardless of circumstances.

It’s a clown-nose-on, clown-nose-off routine where the GOP is blamed for shutdowns, whether they are in the minority or the majority. If Republicans block a continuing resolution, they are responsible. If they pass a continuing resolution and Democrats then block it, well, Republicans are still responsible despite that being a complete reversal of roles. It’s insulting gaslighting that has been propagated by the mainstream press for decades now. 

Johnson likewise lit into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, exposing the wasteful giveaways Democrats are demanding to keep the government open. 

.@SpeakerJohnson NUKES congressional Democrats for poisoning the well on government funding negotiations:

“Now, there’s a reason that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have come out here stomp the feet, saying that they can’t go along with this. They’re trying to bring in… pic.twitter.com/4yoQvJvHW5

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 29, 2025

JOHNSON: Now, there’s a reason that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries have come out here to stomp their feet, saying that they can’t go along with this. They’re trying to bring in extraneous issues. They issued a counterproposal. You should go take a look at what they requested. $1.5 trillion in new spending that is unrelated to the ongoing appropriations process. 

They wanted to, as you said, restore taxpayer-funded benefits? Okay, hardworking taxpayers in America, they want to they want to take your funds and give them to illegal aliens. They want to restore that because we got rid of it. They want it. They want to prop up left-leaning media outlets. 500 million they threw in on top of that, $1.5 trillion on a seven-week stopgap funding measure. 

We’re not going to do that. They know we can’t do that, and we never have. In the past, during the Biden administration, there were 13 threatened shutdowns. The Republicans in the minority did the right thing. We kept the government open. We’re simply asking for the Democrats to do the same…

…If the Democrats make the decision to shut the government down, the consequences are on them, and I think it’s absolutely tragic.

Republicans must keep hammering away at this. During prior shutdown fights, we have been repeatedly told that a minority party that refuses to pass a clean continuing resolution is responsible for any shutdown that happens. Why should that standard suddenly change? And if that standard were to change, it would mean Democrats could essentially rule as a minority party by leveraging shutdown after shutdown to garner all their priorities. How is that fair to the American voters who chose to put Republicans in power? 

With that said, even if the polls end up showing that the GOP will be blamed, and given the misleading coverage we’ll get from the mainstream media, that might happen, it still shouldn’t affect this process. You can not give in to Democrats in this situation in the vain hope of avoiding some bad press. Republicans are always going to get bad press anyway, and setting that precedent would be devastating in the future.