Sam Greenglass

And then one other thing you see, you know, a handful of Democrats who voted to end the government shutdown last fall, this time say they're willing to risk it because this is so important to try and curb the actions of the administration here.

Yeah, well, it is really one of the only places that the minority has any real leverage at all.

You know, this funding cannot pass the Senate if nearly every Democrat is against it like they are now.

And appropriations bills have to get passed or the government shuts down.

Also, something I think about going back to when I covered a state legislature, there's this maxim that budgets are essentially a statement of priorities.

And so to me, it makes sense that this is a place where we see these really supercharged fights playing out right now.

Yeah, I mean, just as recently as maybe two weeks ago, a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators were telling reporters that they were feeling very optimistic, that they were getting very close to a deal.

One told reporters that they were in the red zone.

But those talks have pretty much faltered or come to a halt altogether, in part because of an intractable disagreement over abortion.

And while...

This week may have otherwise served as a platform for a conversation about these subsidies being expired and talks coming to a halt.

That is really not at the forefront of the conversation right now because we are in a posture of approaching a possible partial government shutdown, which is hinging on a totally different issue, immigration enforcement.

And so, yeah, Democrats maybe are going to succeed here about vaulting this issue

issue of immigration enforcement into the public consciousness ahead of the midterms, but it might also undercut the point they had of the last shutdown, which is trying to get healthcare in the public space ahead of the midterms.

So, you know, a key question here going forward is, can you keep all these multiple issues up in the air at the same time and, you know, keep voters engaged in this moment where the news cycles are just moving so fast?

Well, I think a key question for me is, do we see any willingness from Republicans to separate out this DHS funding?

Or do we maybe see Democrats getting cold feet about a shutdown, willing to take some kind of lesser concession?

You know, this is basically how the last shutdown ended in the fall when a handful of Democrats left.

decided they would accept the promise of a vote on the health subsidies and in turn would vote to reopen the government.

That could happen here again.