🔗 Share this article

Government closures have become a recurring element of US politics – but this one feels especially difficult to resolve due to shifting political forces and bad blood among both major parties.

Certain federal operations face a temporary halt, and about 750,000 employees likely to be placed on unpaid leave since Republicans and Democrats can't agree on a spending bill.

Votes aimed at ending the deadlock have repeatedly failed, and it is hard to see an off-ramp this time as both parties – including the nation's leader – perceive advantages in digging in.

These are the four ways in which things feel different in 2025.

First, For Democrats, the focus is on Trump – not just healthcare

Democratic supporters have insisted for months for their representatives more forcefully fights the Trump administration. Currently the party leadership have an opportunity to demonstrate their responsiveness.

Earlier this year, Senate leader faced strong criticism for helping pass a Republican spending bill thus preventing a government closure early this year. This time he's digging in.

This presents an opportunity for Democrats to demonstrate they can take back certain authority from an administration that has moved aggressively with determined action.

Opposing the Republican spending plan comes with political risk that the wider public may become impatient as the dispute drags on and consequences begin to mount.

The Democrats are using the budget standoff to highlight concerns about ending healthcare financial support and GOP-backed federal health program reductions for the poor, both facing public opposition.

Additionally, they're attempting to curtail executive utilization of his executive powers to rescind or withhold money approved by Congress, which he has done with foreign aid and other programmes.

2. For Republicans, it's an opportunity

The administration leader along with a senior aide have made little secret their perspective that they perceive an opening to make more of the cutbacks in government employment implemented during in the Republican's second presidency to date.

The nation's leader personally said last week that the government closure had afforded him a "unique chance", adding he intended to cut "opposition-supported departments".

The White House stated they would face a "challenging responsibility" involving significant workforce reductions to maintain critical federal operations if the shutdown continued. The Press Secretary said this was just "budgetary responsibility".

The scope of the potential lay-offs remains unclear, but the White House have been consulting with federal budget authorities, or OMB, which is headed by the administration's budget director.

The budget director has already announced the halting of government financial support for regions governed by the opposition party, including New York City and Chicago.

3. There's little trust between both parties

While previous shutdowns typically involved late-night talks between the two parties aimed at restoring federal operations, there appears to be little of the same spirit for compromise presently.

Instead, animosity prevails. The bad blood continued over the weekend, with Republicans and Democrats blaming each other regarding the deadlock's origin.

House Speaker from the majority party, accused Democrats with insufficient commitment toward resolution, and holding out over a deal "for electoral protection".

Meanwhile, the opposition's chief made similar charges at the other side, stating how a majority party commitment to discuss healthcare subsidies after operations resume cannot be trusted.

The President himself has escalated tensions through sharing a controversial AI-generated image of the Senate leader and the top Democrat opposition figure, in which the legislator appears wearing a large Mexican-style sombrero and facial hair.

The representative with party colleagues called this racist, a characterization rejected by the Vice-President.

4. The US economy is fragile

Experts project about 40% of the federal workforce – more than 800,000 people – to be put on unpaid leave due to the government closure.

That will depress spending – with broader economic consequences, including halted environmental approvals, delayed intellectual property processing, payments to contractors along with various forms of government activity tied to business cease functioning.

The closure additionally introduces new uncertainty within economic systems currently experiencing disruption by changes ranging from trade measures, earlier cuts to government spending, enforcement actions and technological advancements.

Economic forecasters project that it could shave approximately 0.2% from national economic expansion weekly during the closure.

However, economic activity generally rebounds the majority of interrupted operations following resolution, as it would after disruption caused by a natural disaster.

This might explain partially why financial markets has appeared largely unfazed to the ongoing impasse.

On the other hand, experts indicate that if administration officials implement proposed significant workforce reductions, the damage could be extended in duration.