Free Republic

Only eight percent of Americans believe Democrats “won” the government shutdown battle, a weekly survey from the Economist/YouGov found. The survey asked respondents, “In your opinion, who won the shutdown battle?” Across the board, a plurality, 39 percent, said “neither” side won the shutdown battle, followed by 35 percent who said Republicans. Only eight percent deemed Democrats the victors. Even Democrats themselves are aware that their side lost. Only 14 percent of Democrats surveyed said Democrats won the shutdown battle, as 25 percent said Republicans and 45 percent said neither side. A slight majority, 52 percent, of Republicans said their...

Air traffic controllers and technicians with perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses, the Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration said this week. The bonuses will go to 776 controllers and technicians, who will receive notification next week with payments going out by Dec. 9, the FAA and DOT said. There are about 11,000 fully certified air traffic controllers in the U.S., according to their union. “These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a release late Thursday. The DOT...

U.S. airlines are predicting another record Thanksgiving holiday travel period and are upbeat now that the travel-snarling government shutdown has ended. Airlines will carry more than 31 million people between Friday, Nov. 21, and Monday, Dec. 1, Airlines for America, a lobbying group representing the largest U.S. carriers, predicted Thursday. The busiest days are expected to be the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with about 3.4 million people flying, followed by the Monday after Thanksgiving, with around 3.1 passengers. Airline executives have expressed relief after the longest-ever government shutdown ended Nov. 12. Shortages of air traffic controllers, who were required to work...

HOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week that nearly 3,600 criminal illegal aliens were arrested in Houston during the six-week Democrat-led government shutdown. Department of Homeland Security officials said the arrests targeted the “worst of the worst,” including convicted pedophiles, MS-13 gang members, kidnappers, and repeat offenders previously deported multiple times. Breitbart Texas rode with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) during the government shutdown and with ICE Houston during its first-ever nighttime enforcement action. During four hours, before getting rained out, ERO officers arrested approximately 40 illegal aliens, including at least two drunk drivers.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Wednesday signaled an end to further Democrat shutdown shenanigans with a move to go back to what he called the "old-fashioned way" of funding the government. Speaking to members of the press, Thune said that the "path to a stronger, safer America" is getting funding bills passed through the traditional appropriations process "instead of continuing resolutions." The Schumer Shutdown, which brought chaos to American airports, cut funding to SNAP benefits, etc., ended after 43 days. 🚨NOW — Senator John Thune says government is going to operate the OLD—FASHIONED way!By passing appropriation bills instead...

For all the talk about artificial intelligence and quantum supremacy, the fate of civilizations still depends on breakfast. ChatGPT can’t grow corn. Empires rise on stomachs as much as on silicon. And America’s food system – long dismissed as safe and self-sufficient – has quietly become a front line in the US-China rivalry. We act as if lunch is inevitable, but Beijing knows that food is power. A new report from the America First Policy Institute should wake us up. Washington long treated agriculture as a post-political space where globalization could do no harm, and was therefore happy to let...

The USDA is “crunching numbers” as it considers potential relief for farmers from tariff-related losses, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen A. Vaden said Monday. President Donald Trump’s administration previously hinted that it might devote up to $12 billion to aid payments for farmers who were hurt by tariff policies this year, Politico reported in late October. “This department only woke back up on Thursday of last week,” Vaden said, referencing the Nov. 12 conclusion of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. “Lots of things changed during (the government shutdown),” including trade agreements with China, Southeast Asia, Pakistan, and...

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey publicly called for the removal of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, marking a rare open challenge to party leadership and setting off internal conflict within the Democratic Party. Booker made the remarks during a televised appearance, initiating what several lawmakers described as an unprecedented public break from standard intra-party practice. Booker’s comments signaled dissatisfaction with current leadership and represented a shift from the typical private discussions that accompany leadership disputes. He called for new leadership within the Senate Democratic caucus. The statement was delivered openly and immediately drew attention among Democratic lawmakers in Washington....

A left-wing group behind the massive "No Kings" protests targeting President Donald Trump and his administration launched its largest primary undertaking: targeting Senate Democrats who joined Republicans to reopen the government. "This is no longer about them - it’s about us. We’re done waiting for Democrats to find their spine," Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, said in a Monday press release. "We can’t afford a weak and cowardly Democratic Party... The protests are supported by dozens of left-wing and liberal groups, with Indivisible, the 50501 movement and the No Kings Organization, itself, identified as the top organizers...

The longest government shutdown in history is over, but appropriators still have a long way to go to get nine of the 12 necessary funding bills over the finish line by Jan. 31, 2026.The government reopened after 43 days, following the House’s passage, mostly along party lines, with six Democrats voting in favor and two Republicans voting against, of a legislative package that extended funding until the end of January and included three appropriations bills.However, with the new January deadline, appropriators are up against the clock, as both chambers must now agree on the nine remaining bills so they can...

oday is November 11; thank a veteran. On the menu today: The progressive grassroots insist that they’re madder than ever about Chuck Schumer, but there’s no sign of any coalescing around an alternative leader for Democrats in the Senate. Meanwhile the Democrats continue to chant “no more kings,” although it’s not the hereditary transfer of government power part that really bothers them. Everybody Hates Chuck, Part Two The big story as the week continues is the progressive grassroots’ apoplectic rage at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over how the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history is coming to a...

The government is open again, but only because Democrats finally admitted defeat. After orchestrating the longest shutdown in American history — 43 days of economic carnage and manufactured crisis — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) walked away with exactly what they deserved: nothing. No wins. No concessions. No extensions of the pandemic-era ObamaCare subsidies over which they had been holding the country hostage. Just a battered economy, furious constituents, and a party eating its own.House and Senate conservatives refused to blink, and Democrats had nowhere left to go.The wreckage they left behind...

The Democrats needed to re-open or they’d become irrelevant.Well, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history is finally over, and many of you are asking questions like, “Why would Sydney Sweeney make a movie where she plays a fat boxer? What was she thinking?” Also, “Why do women play with their hair when they like a guy?” And here’s another one: “You know how the screen just went dark in the last episode of ‘The Sopranos’? What the hell was that about? I mean, they’re paying the screenwriter good money. Shouldn’t he be able to come up with some kind...

A Democrat representative appears to have revealed the party’s next plot to sow chaos in DC and stall President Donald Trump’s agenda. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA), who represents South Boston in Congress, told CNN’s Omar Jimenez on Friday that the party could be eyeing a second attempt at shutting down the government when the short-term continuing resolution expires in January. “Democrat Rep. Stephen Lynch says he is “furious” that the government reopened and suggests the Democrats will shut down the government again in January,” RNC Research wrote on X in a post accompanying the CNN clip. “I’m, I’m, I’m furious...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jessica Sweet spent the federal government shutdown cutting back. To make ends meet, the Social Security claims specialist drank only one coffee a day, skipped meals, cut down on groceries and deferred paying some household bills. She racked up spending on her credit card buying gas to get to work. With the longest shutdown ever coming to a close, Sweet and hundreds of thousands of other federal workers who missed paychecks will soon get some relief. But many are left feeling that their livelihoods served as political pawns in the fight between recalcitrant lawmakers in Washington and...

The House on Wednesday passed a funding bill that will end the government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, by a margin of 222-209. President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign the bill later Wednesday. The legislation will fund the government through Jan. 30 and provide funding for some government agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year.

At first blush, the deal that paved the way to end the government shutdown this week looked exactly like the kind of feeble outcome many Democrats have come to expect from their leaders in Washington. After waging a 40-day fight to protect Americans’ access to health care — one they framed as existential — their side folded after eight defectors struck a deal that would allow President Trump and Republicans to reopen the government this week without doing anything about health coverage or costs, enraging all corners of the party. But even some of the Democrats most outraged by the...

The collapse of Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit, when seven fellow Democrats and one independent broke ranks with him, serves as a humiliating bookend to the longest government closure ever. It also simultaneously highlights one of President Trump’s most sweeping and crucial Washington victories over his most toxic opponents.Ever since his first election in 2016, Trump has been thwarted, tormented, impeached and mocked by Schumer and Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.And now he has turned the tables on them in devastating fashion, with Schumer likely to be dethroned as Senate minority leader and Pelosi packing her money bags to leave...

snip The agreement includes a “minibus” of three appropriations bills, which will fund some parts of the government through next fall. The rest of the government will be funded through Jan. 30. The deal includes funding of the food assistance program known as SNAP for the rest of the fiscal year through September 2026, meaning families will be fed and food stamps can’t be used as leverage in any funding fight in the coming months. The group of eight also got some wins for federal workers, who have been under siege since Trump’s inauguration, facing aggressive Department of Government Efficiency...

Flyers could face travel Armageddon over the weekend if the government doesn’t reopen by then, Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy cautioned Tuesday. More than 10% of flights could be delayed nationally, Duffy warned – adding that some airlines may even decide to ground their fleets altogether. “You may find airlines that stop flying. Full stop,” Duffy said. And last weekend’s travel delays – which saw thousands of flights cancelled and scores more delayed – would be “tiddlywinks” compared to what could happen this weekend if the government isn’t open again, Duffy said. “It is going to radically slow down,” the secretary...