Flashback: Barack Obama on Shutdowns, Then and Now

Every so often, when we are truly blessed as a people, Barack Obama descends from his exalted, fabulously wealthy perch to impart his wisdom upon us. Often, this comes in the form of expressions of disappointment -- we constantly seem to let him down, the poor guy -- but we should be deeply honored whenever he deigns to speak to us at all. In recent days, Saint Barack has waded into the government shutdown discourse, apparently endorsing Democrats' decision to force a partial shutdown, in pursuit of various ancillary policy demands. This is what the out-of-power party is insisting upon, in order to keep the government open, via the editors of National Review:

Democrats appear poised to force a government shutdown. House Republicans have passed a clean bill to continue financing the government beyond the end of the fiscal year, but Senator Chuck Schumer is digging in his heels in the upper chamber, where any government financing bill will require the votes of at least seven Democrats. Current funding runs out at the end of Tuesday, but a much-publicized meeting with the White House on Monday ended with Schumer citing “very large differences.” Ostensibly, Democrats are trying to pressure Republicans on health care. Joe Biden used Covid-era spending bills as an excuse to expand Obamacare subsidies to help cover the skyrocketing premiums caused by the onerous regulations of the national health care law. Those enhanced subsidies were supposed to be temporary and were set to expire at the end of 2025. Democrats want them extended. In addition, Democrats are screaming bloody murder about modest good-government reforms to Medicaid aimed at verifying addresses of recipients, making sure illegal immigrants don’t get covered, and requiring able-bodied enrollees to work part-time jobs to receive coverage.

Much of this is actually about Chuck Schumer desperately pandering to a left-wing base that now despises him as weak and a 'Zionist,' so he wants to demonstrate a performative "fight." It doesn't seem as though he has an exit strategy or endgame that will please any of these same people, but he can't be bothered to think that far ahead. As a policy matter, Democrats say they'll use their limited power and leverage to force a shutdown unless the GOP majorities and President Trump agree to a further extension of temporary, enhanced, expensive Obamacare subsidies (the "Affordable Care Act" has utterly failed to live up to its name and empty promise), as well as undoing a host of important reforms implemented in the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' including withholding taxpayer-funded healthcare coverage to illegal immigrants. Bail out Obamacare and gut your own signature legislative achievement, or we'll shut it down. That has been the opposition's rallying cry for weeks. And Obama apparently agrees with his party's posturing -- characteristically engaging in totally mendacious, partisan framing and lecturing as he pretends to float above the muck and fray:

Shutting down the government over healthcare policy disagreements -- while demanding unrealistic and unattainable policy changes, and unpersuasively blaming the other side of the aisle -- currently has Saint Barack's blessing. Fascinating. Here is the same man in 2013, as president, when House Republicans shut down the government over healthcare policy disagreements, while demanding unrealistic and unattainable policy changes and unpersuasively blaming the other side of the aisle:

Fun flashback of a man excoriating his political opposition for forcing a government shutdown over healthcare policy disagreements: https://t.co/miJf3x8zB4 pic.twitter.com/Hy4Ha5wjN8
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 30, 2025

At midnight last night, for the first time in 17 years, Republicans in Congress chose to shut down the federal government. Let me be more specific: One faction, of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government, shut down major parts of the government -- all because they didn't like one law. This Republican shutdown did not have to happen. But I want every American to understand why it did happen. Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to fund the government unless we defunded or dismantled the Affordable Care Act. They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans. In other words, they demanded ransom just for doing their job. And many representatives, including an increasing number of Republicans, have made it clear that had they been allowed by Speaker Boehner to take a simple up or down vote on keeping the government open, with no partisan strings attached, enough votes from both parties would have kept the American people's government open and operating. We may not know the full impact of this Republican shutdown for some time. It will depend on how long it lasts. But we do know a couple of things. We know that the last time Republicans shut down the government in 1996, it hurt our economy. And unlike 1996, our economy is still recovering from the worst recession in generations.

We know that certain services and benefits that America's seniors and veterans and business owners depend on must be put on hold. Certain offices, along with every national park and monument, must be closed...We know that the longer this shutdown continues, the worse the effects will be. More families will be hurt. More businesses will be harmed. So, once again, I urge House Republicans to reopen the government, restart the services Americans depend on, and allow the public servants who have been sent home to return to work. This is only going to happen when Republicans realize they don't get to hold the entire economy hostage over ideological demands...I want to underscore the fact that Congress doesn't just have to end this shutdown and reopen the government -- Congress generally has to stop governing by crisis. They have to break this habit. It is a drag on the economy. It is not worthy of this country...Nobody gets to hurt our economy and millions of hardworking families over a law you don't like. That's not how adults operate. Certainly that's not how our government should operate.

But that was then. Now, this same person is enabling the exact same behavior from his own partisan tribe. I'm sure he'd argue this is "different," and his reasons are better, but that's nonsense. It's a mirror image, with one major exception: Back in 2013, Republicans at least controlled the House of Representatives back then, having won a few elections after Obama secured the presidency. Right now, Democrats don't even have "one house of Congress, in one branch of government," as Obama sneeringly referred to the GOP's position over a decade ago. They have nothing because they lost it all at the ballot box. I'd encourage Obama to consider these facts and re-watch his own remarks from his second term, but like most "progressives," he feels unburdened by rules or consistency. They just do whatever they feel like doing, at any given time, secure in the belief that they're the good guys. The other side of the aisle does this too, of course, but Democrats fancy themselves intellectually and morally superior to those neanderthals and their various gruntings. In reality, they are neither. Democrats can own their Schumer Shutdown, if they'd like, until they inevitably surrender in some fashion. That's what always happens. And in the meantime, the Trump administration can make things quite painful for them:

Democrats will give the Trump team exactly what it’s been wanting—a shutdown—in return for Democrats’ continuing to demand something they will never get. What a deal. Even Faust got some worldly pleasure in exchange for a soul. This is trading hellfire for brimstone. Mr. Trump’s biggest second-term transgression, according to opponents, has been his dismantling of the federal apparatus. The Department of Government Efficiency enacted firings or resignation incentives expected to result in 300,000 fewer federal employees by year’s end. The president has clawed back grant money and frozen funds. What’s an incandescent Democrat to do? Hand him a gift-wrapped opportunity to do more of the same. Obviously. The true scope of this losing proposition came clear with a memo Mr. Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued Wednesday night, explaining how a shutdown will roll.
Shutdowns usually mean furloughed federal employees, who suffer temporary inconvenience before resuming their jobs. Not this time. The Vought memo orders agencies to identify all programs that depend on discretionary funding (which lapses next week) and don’t align with the president’s priorities. Employees who administer those disfavored programs or projects won’t be furloughed. They will be fired...This administration also has every incentive—and decent means—to lessen shutdown pain for average Americans while maximizing it for Democrats. The Trump team has already listed the programs that will continue regardless of shutdown: Social Security, Medicare, military operations, veteran benefits, border security, air-traffic control. The recent reconciliation bill helps ensure they function.

Trump himself is saying exactly the same thing:

JUST NOW -- TRUMP on shutdown:

"We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.
"And you know all you all know…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) September 30, 2025

Good luck with your plan-free, unwinnable government shutdown while it lasts, Party Of Government. I'll leave you with this:

Dem partisans want a FIGHT!!!1!! that the rest of the country really, really does not: pic.twitter.com/M23nTuMIgg
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 30, 2025

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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