Revolving Door Project | Republicans Reveal Their True Intentions At The 11th Hour

Even on the brink of a shutdown, the GOP remains committed to shutting down the federal government.

This article was originally published on our Substack. Read it here.

We are less than 72 hours away from Friday’s deadline to avoid a government shutdown, and Congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to solidify party-line support for their funding bill…except actually committing to fund the government.

At the same time, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is mounting a pressure campaign against Congressional Democrats in an attempt to shift blame for the precarity federal workers—and the regular people they serve—will inevitably face in the event of a shutdown.

But, as my colleague Hannah Story Brown wrote in this newsletter last week, the government is already shut down thanks to unelected billionaire-in-chief Elon Musk and his DOGE agents. (We just revamped our DOGE personnel tracker, give it a look!)

Congressional Democrats, showing some shadow of a spine, seem to understand and internalize this message, and remain largely united in opposing Johnson’s continuing resolution (CR).

But some in the party are understandably wary of non-negotiation, given credible concerns that “Trump or Musk could make a government shutdown as painful as possible for federal workers.”

But that’s just the point! Civil servants are already in pain as a result of the ongoing Trump/Musk coup and Democrats should force Republicans to singularly own the fact that they intend to inflict further damage through a broader shutdown.

Make Republicans own the fact that their CFPB continued “reduction in staff” meetings weeks after a court-ordered end to layoffs at the agency.

Make Republicans own the fact that they want more pregnant civil servants to literally worry themselves sick over their loss of income and insurance benefits.

Make Republicans own the fact that federal employees were always in Trump’s cross hairs. And that legislative efforts to retroactively offer them support are little more than political theater for Republicans trying to claw back goodwill from rightfully enraged constituents.

Most importantly, Democrats need to make Republicans own the fact that their decimation of the federal workforce only serves the corporate class—at everyone else’s expense.

We at the Revolving Door Project have started tracking the civil servants currently sacrificing their jobs instead of administering the illegal orders of Republican rule. Democrats should highlight these individuals, elevate their stories, and loudly warn that the Trump/Musk administration wants to force more federal workers into unemployment.

The 11th hour is also making Republicans increasingly honest about the hollowness of their CR.

In a last-minute sales pitch, Vice President JD Vance reportedly assured his party members that Trump will “ensure allocations from Congress are not spent on things that harm the tax payer.”

Vance’s statement, as Senior Brookings Fellow Molly Reynolds noted, is a textbook example of saying the quiet part out loud: “vote for my bill so the president can refuse to spend the money you just voted for.”

It doesn’t get more honest than that. Republicans only seem interested in avoiding a congressional shutdown so that they can continue shutting down the government through the executive branch.

Appeasement simply isn’t an option in the face of such disregard for the Constitution. Trump’s disappearing of activist Mahmoud Khalil last weekend serves as further proof that our current political moment is far from normal.

Democrats must fully recognize this reality and remain steadfast in their opposition to the various manifestations of fascism under the Trump/Musk administration.

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