--- title: Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues | TIME description: A vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide. canonical: https://time.com/video/pmSknhIm/ og:title: Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues og:description: A vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide. og:url: https://time.com/video/pmSknhIm/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pmSknhIm/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues twitter:description: A vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/pmSknhIm/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Politics # Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues [Watch (HLS stream): Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/pmSknhIm.m3u8) (4:48)  _Published 2025-10-01. A vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide._ --- Oct 10, 2025 11:20 AM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [As SNAP Benefits Set to Run Out Amid Government Shutdown, Democratic and Republican Lawmakers Blame Each Other](/video/ASMabTmy/) ### As SNAP Benefits Set to Run Out Amid Government Shutdown, Democratic and Republican Lawmakers Blame Each Other [](/video/5OIdK5w7/) ![Republicans Bank on Democrats Caving in Shutdown Standoff \[VERTICAL\]](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5OIdK5w7/poster.jpg?width=720)02:30 ### Republicans Bank on Democrats Caving in Shutdown Standoff \[VERTICAL\] [Johnson’s Plan to Avert a Government Shutdown Passes—but Angers Some Republicans](/video/pmF1PhAO/) ### Johnson’s Plan to Avert a Government Shutdown Passes—but Angers Some Republicans --- ## Transcript At midnight, the federal government officially shut down because Republicans failed to fix the health care crisis that they've created. This is a sad, serious, and somber moment for the country. Americans are already facing a dual affordability and healthcare crisis thanks to Donald Trump's tariffs and Republicans big, ugly law. And now, because Republicans refuse to come to the table and negotiate with Democrats, Americans can suffer even more. We were elected to solve the problems of this country, not make them worse. And that's exactly what Donald Trump and his Republican henchmen are seeking to do. We've been having these conversations. We've been pushing to engage since March, by the way, a CR that we didn't support as well. And we have been saying loudly that we have huge concerns from the rescissions that Donald Trump and his administration have executed to not spending resources that Democrats and Republicans have allocated. We've been telling our Republican colleagues for months, these are concerns of ours. And we have told them, work with us, talk with us and all we got were partisan bills, because Speaker Johnson is just interested in being the chair of the Republican conference. He isn't interested, apparently, in being the speaker of the House. Donald Trump and Republicans have barreled us into a shutdown because they refused to protect Americans health care. It's clear that the way out of this shutdown is to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to address the looming health care crisis that faces tens of millions of American families. Democrats want to avert this crisis, but Republicans tried to bully us, and it's clear they can't. They don't have the votes. The way out of this is for Republicans to finally roll up their sleeves and get to work. If Republicans work with us and fix America's health care crisis, the shutdown could go away very quickly. And that's what Democrats want to end this now, fix health care now. It's the right thing to do for the American people. We urge our Republican colleagues, we urge President Trump to take yes for an answer. At midnight, the Democrats followed through on their threat to shut down the United States government. The sad thing about it is that every single bit of this was entirely avoidable. Democrats could have worked with us in a bipartisan manner to avert this unnecessary and very harmful shutdown, but instead they did something that is rather shocking to us. They prioritized taxpayer funded benefits for illegal aliens over keeping the government open for American citizens. Whether or not the government remains open or reopens is entirely up to them. There's still time for Democrats to pass this clean, bipartisan bill that's sitting before them, and we encourage our Democratic colleagues to do that. I certainly pray they'll come to their senses soon and do the right and responsible thing. This could have been avoided. It's totally unavoidable. And everybody's now asking the question, how does this end? Well, it ends when the Senate Democrats pick this bill up, passed by the House of Representatives and vote for it. President. House Republicans, Senate Republicans, we're all united on this. And what's interesting now is some of the Democrats are joining us. Our vote last night was a bipartisan vote. There were three Democrats that came over and voted with us because they know this strategy is a losing one and it hurts the American people. It's not about who wins or who loses or who gets blamed in all this. It's about the American people, and they have taken the American people hostage. Yesterday in the Senate floor, the cracks started to appear in the Democrat base. Three Democrats voted with the Republicans to prevent a shutdown. And why? Because they know the American people are hurt when the government shuts down. The Democrats need to pass the House's seven week funding bill. Until then, there's nothing to negotiate. There's no compromises to be had. There's no gangs. There's no back channels. There's another vote today in the Senate. And Senate Democrats will hopefully do the right thing. And if they don't today, then they'll have another chance later this week and next week. And as long as it takes until the Senate passes the House bill. We. Are here ready to get the job done. Schumer needs to end this shutdown. And finally, join with us and let's start real negotiations without holding the American people hostage. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Republican and Democratic Lawmakers React to Government Shutdown as Blame Game Ensues","description":"A vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that President Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to provide. 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