I have to admit yesterdays White House meeting was much less eventful than I figured it would be. If you had asked me how it would go I would have told you it was set up to be a circus and instead that is not what we got. Even if the meeting was uneventful yesterday was full of action and there was one big take away in my opinion.

The Democrats do not have a clear or clean plan and surprisingly the Republicans are keeping their message simple and clear.

A leak from the Senate side showed that Schumer does not have a clear way out of this. It came out he had approached a group of Senate Dems about voting for a 7 or 10 day CR with the caveat that Trump agree to Obamacare subsidiary negotiations. Not only did this leak before they announced it to the public but it leaked before the meeting with Republican Leaders and the President and was received so poorly that Schumer completely abandoned the idea.

During the meeting with Republicans Leaders and the President both Schumer and Jeffries unveiled a huge list of things that they demand to keep the government open. Most of this list from what I have seen is stuff that has been talking points like making the Obamacare tax credits permeant while also reigning in the Executive Branches rescission abilities among others. If they had one or two then maybe the meeting would have been able to go somewhere but because it was a list of grievances well they essentially ended the idea of negotiating.

When you add in the reports that came out from the House Democrat Caucus meeting earlier in the day and the yelling that was heard from the most Progressive Members saying "hell no" to options its clear that the House Democrats are not coming to any sort of plan either. If their goal is to get something extra besides a clean CR passed then they are going to have to join en mass to the vote to offset the guaranteed Republican vote loss.

On the other side Republicans were able to leave the White House meeting agreeing that things like healthcare in America was broken and through legislation needs to be passed to fix critical issues including the Obamacare tax credits. It was not realistic though to do it now and rushing legislation never leads to good results. The tax credits also dont expire till the first of 2026 so there is plenty of time.

Republicans are surprisingly in a good spot and their arguments are easy and clear for voters to understand. This funding wont change anything it will allow funding to continue to flow as previously agreed to by both sides and the Democrats are willing to shut it down. When you factor in the furlough people who might not get back pay and could end up being fired if the Office of Management and Budget get there way it only makes the idea of closing the government even worse and the repercussions for people you claim to care about further fall to the wayside.

If this shutdown goes into effect this will be the first time the Government has FULLY shut down since 2013 (it lasted 16 days) in 2018 the longest shutdown took place but multiple parts of the government were funded (legislative branch, Pentagon, Department of Commerce) while the National Park Service, Federal Bureau of Prisons, NASA, and the White House were not paid or in the case of NASA only 4% of the workforce continued working and 25% of the White House.