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Published by Galveston County Daily News Published: November 15, 2025
The “Schumer Shutdown” (named for Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-NY) tied up funding the Federal Government in the Senate for over forty days.  It impacted an innumerable number of people including travelers with flights cancelled or delayed -- stranding some -- because some unpaid Federal Aviation Administration’s flight controllers didn’t show up for work.  Travelers faced long check-in delays because some unpaid Transportation Security Administration employees didn’t report either.  Meanwhile, with their incomes in jeopardy, members of our armed forces and federal law enforcement agencies remained on duty. Our hats go off to those who worked, even without guarantees of being paid.  In our minds, those “essential workers” who worked should be paid, those who didn’t shouldn’t.   In the end, we understand all furloughed government workers will be paid regardless. Kudos to President Trump who is considering rewarding those who did work with a $10,000 bonus* and to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) who refused his salary during the shutdown. What’s at the heart of the “Schumer Shutdown?”  The Democrats wanted us to think it was about ObamaCare premium subsidies which impact approximately 7% of the population.  They wanted to make these “temporary” subsidies “permanent” and to increase them – making lower income people further dependent upon the government.   The actual cost is at least $20 billion for U.S. citizens and an additional $25 billion for illegal aliens. The Senate Democrats were holding out for $1.5 trillion.    So, what’s the difference?  The House Appropriations Committee lists a few of the extra things the Democrats wanted included: Restore taxpayer-funded free healthcare for illegal aliens; Reinstitute funding for liberal news programs like National Public Radio; Restore cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs which likely would endanger the Medicare program in the long run; Restore access to taxpayer-funded health programs for able-bodied adults who refuse to work; Fund defense for criminals to the tune of over $1 billion; and to Repeal $50 billion in rural health care funding, hurting hospitals and clinics in vulnerable communities. In other words, they wanted to undo much of what was included in the budget reconciliation bill passed earlier this year.   The GOP-majority refused to accept the Democrat’s regressive agenda.  As the money for food stamp benefits started to dwindle, the Administration made plans to reallocate funds for at least partial payments.  As is typical, the Democrats turned to the courts to force full payments -- even without funding availability.  Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Jack McConnell rejected the administration's partial payment plan and ruled full payments should be paid to some 42 million low-income beneficiaries.   The Constitution is clear, only Congress has the authority to appropriate government funding.  It doesn’t give the judiciary the power to overrule or change such legislative actions.  If Congress hasn’t appropriated enough money, an activist judge cannot require full payments!  To allow this to stand would have been a clear separation of powers issue; the judge's actions were unconstitutional.  Thankfully the Supreme Court overturned Judge McConnell’s order.  This kind of judicial activism and obstructionism must stop! So must the political blackmail on the part of Democrats like Chuck Schumer. * On November 14th Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem handed out $10,000 checks to TSA workers who remained on duty at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas during the government shutdown.
	About the Author and Columnist 2025 Bill and Mansius have written over 300 guest columnsr and editorials together over the last ten years for numerous publications across the country and they continue to do so. Bill lives in Texas and Mark in Utah. Both gentlemen ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14. Since then they have become close friends and colleagues. In addition to formerly being responsible for overseeing elections in Galveston County as Galveston's Chief Deputy Clerk for Elections, Bill has worked with the Texas State Legislature to improve and craft election legisation.

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