‘Time for Democrats to exercise what power they have’: readers on the US shutdown

The US federal government shut down on Wednesday after Democrats opted against voting for a Republican funding plan in order to seek concessions on healthcare and other priorities.

It is the Democrats’ first major opportunity to make a stand in Congress since voters re-elected Donald Trump last year and relegated them to the minority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Yet it comes with risks – previous shutdowns have not accomplished much for whichever party instigates them, and the Trump administration has threatened to use the funding lapse to intensify its campaign of laying off federal workers.

Do voters agree with the party’s tactics? Have Democrats issued the right demands? The Guardian asked its readers, and the overwhelming answer was yes – though not without some concerns about the party’s overall strategy.

“Normally I think a government shutdown is bad, but in this case, it is time for the Democrats to exercise what little power they have,” said 66-year-old Las Vegas resident Jenn Gilbert.

“This is the only power Democrats have in government at the moment, and they must use it or lose out entirely,” said Randy Barron of New Mexico.

“The Republicans have refused to negotiate with the Democrats on anything related to governing. Therefore, in my opinion, they were left with the only leverage they had: a government shutdown,” was the view of Douglas T Rand of Boston.

“I deplore having to take this step as people will suffer by being laid off, individuals in many parts of the country will be severely inconvenienced as a result of the shutdown. Ultimately though, the miscreant in charge of our government has the ultimate responsibility to solve this issue,” said 82-year-old John M Dowley Sr of Kingston, New York.

Opinions were more divergent when it came to the Democrats’ conditions for reopening the government. The party is demanding that the GOP agree to extend premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act health (ACA) plans. Those expire at the end of the year, and 20 million Americans will pay more for health insurance if they are not renewed.

Democrats also want a reversal of cuts to Medicaid made under the One Big Beautiful Bill act Republicans passed earlier this year, which, together with other changes in the bill, are expected to cost about 10 million people their health insurance. The party is also demanding a restoration of funding for public media outlets like PBS and NPR, and a prohibition on Donald Trump’s use of a pocket rescission to slash funding Congress has already approved.

Republicans have scoffed at their conditions, and insisted Democrats provide the necessary votes in the Senate to advance legislation that will fund the government through 21 November.

Many of those who wrote in to the Guardian were on board with the Democrats’ ultimatum, particularly when it came to healthcare – an issue that has long been a top priority of the party.

“We Democrats can’t consent to taking away healthcare coverage from millions of people. We need to hang tough,” said 86-year-old Glenna Matthews of Laguna Beach, California.

“Hold these Republicans accountable for trying to take away people’s healthcare. Counteract their despicable lies,” said 70-year-old Janet Borton of Florida.

Mary Hunter of Lewiston, Maine, said Democrats should continue doing “exactly what they are doing”, but bemoaned the dilemma it put her lawmakers in. She is a constituent of Jared Golden, the only Democrat to vote for the GOP spending plan in the House, and Angus King, the independent senator who aligns with Democrats but has voted for the bill in the Senate.

“Unfortunately we are left trying to weigh the undoubted harm done by a shutdown against the equally indubitable harm done by rocketing insurance premiums and the dialing back of Medicaid. That is a totally unnecessary quandary to put our representatives in,” she said.

Other supported the shutdown, but were unsure if the party was fighting on the right issues, or if the cost of their struggle was worth bearing.

“We need a functioning federal government to prevent the United States from breaking apart,” said Duane Wyatt Bays of McGill, Nevada, that he supported the Democrats’s tactics “with hesitation”. “We do not have a functioning federal government if everything is cut except the military.”

Paul David White, 73, of Massachusetts said he was “disheartened by Democrats’ inability to explain the rationale. What is the game plan here? Obstruction for its own sake [is] never a winning strategy.”

Benjamin Allen of Oregon noted that he benefited from the ACA subsidies, but called the party’s focus on the issue “a mistake”.

“That’s a policy issue and Democrats are in the minority,” he said.

Allen was one of several who argued that Democrats must use the showdown to counteract Trump and the GOP’s moves to cut funding that Congress has already approved. In July, congressional Republicans passed legislation cancelling $9b in funds for public media outlets and foreign aid, which Trump followed up weeks later with a pocket rescission to block another $5b in funding for aid programs – a move that the supreme court’s conservative majority allowed to proceed.

“The use of pocket rescissions makes any appropriation a joke, and Congress’s attendant loss of control over spending undermines democracy, which is already genuinely teetering under the Trump administrations constant and Supreme Court-assisted assaults,” Allen said.

Democrats should insist on “the return of the power of the purse to Congress,” said White, who called it: “A big ask but … [this is] the issue at hand.”

Bruce Higgins of San Diego, 71, agreed, saying: “This is a fundamental test of our democracy. This shutdown will establish that Congress’s power of the purse is real, and must be respected. The second principle is that Congress is a co-equal partner in our government. The president must consult and negotiate with Congress. He cannot rule by decree. The Democrats must defend these principles or we might as well crown Trump king now.”