If you listen to the media, you’d think the federal government has gone dark. Panic! Shutdown! Doom!
But let’s get real: This isn’t a shutdown. It’s a slowdown — mostly for bureaucrats who will still get paid when it’s over.
The military’s still on duty. Air traffic controllers are still at work. Social Security checks are still being delivered. America keeps running while Washington pretends to grind to a halt.
Roughly 750,000 federal employees are on furlough right now. Sounds dramatic until you remember every one of them will get back pay when the shutdown ends. In other words, they’re getting a taxpayer-funded vacation.
And it’s a big workforce. The federal government now employs 2.9 million civilians, making it the largest employer in the country — bigger than Walmart’s 2.1 million. Many of these employees are not just government workers; they’re part of the permanent political machine in D.C., the same crowd that votes Democrat, cheers for Kamala Harris, and pushes back against every effort to rein in runaway spending.
Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to do what taxpayers have wanted for years: Draw the line. They’re demanding spending cuts and opposing the Democrats’ push to extend Obamacare subsidies to illegal immigrants, a plan that would cost $350 billion over 10 years. Democrats are holding the budget hostage to get their way.
Each day of this so-called shutdown costs about $400 million in deferred wages. That sounds bad until you realize those wages aren’t lost — they’re just delayed. The only people truly feeling the pain are small businesses and federal contractors who don’t get the luxury of guaranteed back pay.
This is the 11th government shutdown in modern history, and the third during a Trump presidency. If history is any guide, it’ll end like the others, with a handshake in Washington, back pay for the workers, and not a single lesson learned about fiscal discipline.
So when you hear that the government is “shut down,” remember: The lights are still on, the paychecks will still come, and the only thing that’s actually closed is the Democrats’ willingness to stop spending.
For most of Washington, this isn’t a crisis. It’s a vacation.
6 thoughts on “Downing: The ‘shutdown’ that is actually another paid vacation for Washington’s bureaucrats”
You’re spot on my dear! The entire charade is 🐂💩! One can only pray that this time will be different and DJT will actually terminate MANY of the superfluous minions in government employ.
Let’s start calling it as it is who pays for government The Private Sector pays for why there are government jobs and why there is any money given out through a department
The biggest government dependent isn’t the the unemployed single mom with 3 kids or 7 kids, nor the drug addict, nor the honelesss. The Biggest government dependent isn’t that You with a government job. You are the problem who takes government money for a paycheck.
So if one is tired of government dependency they get out if government and go get a real job that actually produces revenue for America.
How the government shutdown has affected me: It hasn’t.
Hopefully this time will be the time that the message gets through, the media hysteria about a “government shutdown” isn’t a government shutdown at all. The average American isn’t impacted by this political maneuver in any meaningful way and never has been impacted in any meaningful way during previous “government shutdowns”. The Democrat Party, who has once again, decided to “shutdown government” has gone to the well too often and people are finally getting hip to the scam. This has historically and is currently a desperate cry to push the leftist agenda and the legacy media has played along with it while pushing the narrative.
When lefty Chris Cuomo is taking note of just how untruthful the left is, you know the damage control isn’t working. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/10/02/chris_cuomo_what_hakeem_jeffries_and_democrats_are_saying_about_the_shutdown_is_just_not_true.html
I find it really difficult to understand why the US military is not considered “essential”. What is the federal government’s definition of “essential”? So, what if the State of Alaska had a government shutdown, would it have the same effect-just deferred paychecks? BTW, has the Washington Monument been roped off LOL?
That’s right! And the Republicans who are in charge of all branches of government shouldn’t have let it happen!