The federal government has shut down after the Senate failed to pass a funding bill, halting pay for federal employees and suspending nonessential services.
In North Texas, the political divide mirrors national tensions, with two prominent lawmakers — Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas — offering sharply opposing views.
Both lawmakers are blaming the opposite party for the impasse.
“This really goes to show you just how ineffective the Republicans are when it comes to governance,” Crockett said.
“So, it is Chuck Schumer and the Democrats who caused the shutdown,” Cruz said.
Shutdown follows familiar political pattern
The Senate once again failed to reach the 60 votes needed to pass the House-approved continuing resolution. Crockett pointed to a trend in shutdowns under the current administration.
“The last time we had a shutdown was under the same president, so there is a trend,” she said. “I’ve got to give it up to President Biden. At the end of the day, he felt like the most responsible thing he could do is to make sure he could keep the government open.”
Cruz responded by citing past bipartisan cooperation.
“When Chuck Schumer was majority leader and Joe Biden was president, there were 13 clean C-Rs,” Cruz said, “and the difference was Republicans went along with the clean C-Rs and didn’t force a government shutdown. Thirteen times.”
Healthcare tax credits spark division
A major sticking point in negotiations is the future of enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act. The credits, passed during the COVID-19 pandemic, are set to expire at the end of the year. Democrats want to make them permanent to prevent rising premiums, while Republicans argue they were intended as temporary relief.
“To create an additional problem for people to access healthcare, and then to fall back and say well, COVID is gone, well, guess what? You guys have created yet another catastrophic situation for the American people that is going to make this unaffordable for so many reasons,” Crockett said.
“Look, I am very interested in any conversation about lowering premiums for health insurance,” Cruz said. “… I think that this is an area of life that Democrat big government programs have done real damage and have made health insurance unaffordable to a whole lot of Texans. That isn’t right … But I’m not going to do so while the Democrats are shutting the government down.”
Senate prepares for Friday vote
The Senate is expected to vote again on Friday on whether to reopen the government or continue the shutdown.