Every time Washington threatens a “government shutdown,” the media scrambles to make it sound like a national emergency.
Both sides vie to capture the narrative and paint themselves as the “good guys” and the other side as “bad”.
In all the noise, it’s easy for normal people who just want to live their lives and support their families to lose sight of what’s actually happening, and why we’re here. Again.
Right now, the government is in a shutdown because Congress missed the October 1 funding deadline. Essential services continue, but hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed while the Senate and House argue over short-term funding bills.
Here’s the part most people don’t hear: the two competing stopgap plans aren’t a fight over whether to spend less. They’re a fight over how much more to promise, and where to put it.
-
House Republicans’ bill keeps most program spending at last year’s levels and extends some health and veterans’ programs through November 21—a continuation of record-high baseline spending.
-
Senate Democrats’ bill layers on additional items—most notably extending expanded Affordable Care Act premium tax credits (raising enrollment and the federal deficit), undoing July’s rescissions of previously approved funds (like foreign aid and public broadcasting), and adding guardrails on the White House’s ability to hold back appropriated money.
So the “shutdown” isn’t happening because one party is demanding cuts. It’s happening because both parties want to keep spending big, and one wants to spend even bigger.
I hate it so much I even made a shirt.
Of course, the tab keeps running.
Treasury data confirm the gross national debt just crossed $38 trillion—less than three months after it hit $37 trillion. FY2025 ended with a roughly $1.8 trillion deficit.
I’m sorry, but… are you freaking kidding me?!
It’s shocking how badly our so-called “representatives” advocate for things that actually serve our best interest or our futures. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that government actually wants us depressed, broke, afraid, and hopeless.
Ha.
Meanwhile, economists have been warning that interest on this debt is claiming a larger share of federal revenues than most people can even imagine. This puts some scary long-term pressure on prices.
Of course you already know this.
People like you and I feel it at the grocery store and in our monthly budgets (that we, unlike the crooks in Washington, have to actually balance and work within) long before we read it in a report.
This is why it’s so important that we keep hammering home these fundamentals with our kids: what money is, why debt matters, and how politicians just push spending ever upward.
My hope is that if the next generation can see through today’s budget theater, they’ll be much harder to fool tomorrow.
We’ve spent the last decade creating resources to help parents teach sound economics, personal responsibility, and the limits of government in a way kids not only understand, but actually enjoy learning about.
Our Monster Sale is still live, and that means you can outfit your whole home library—books, curriculum, bundles—for a lot less than Congress spends in a millisecond.
The truth is, the more broken Washington becomes, the more powerful families like ours can be.
Because when parents teach their kids what freedom, responsibility, and freedom really mean, the federal government becomes a lot less powerful.
Fed Gov might be “closed for business”, but in our homes, the real work of building a better, more peaceful, and more prosperous future goes on.
Thankfully.
— Connor
