Shutdown Theater, Act II: The Annual 'Blame Game' Has Begun

The audience is arriving in their stretch limos and ill-fitting tuxedos, preparing for opening night of the 2025 edition of Shutdown Theater.

While some may have had doubts about whether the production would even happen, there was never really any question. Both sides wanted it. Both sides are going to get it.

Donald Trump spoke to Politico last night following a pro-forma meeting with the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate at the White House. It was pro-forma because everyone knew it was part of the production.

He was confident the production would proceed smoothly and that if anything untoward happened, Democrats would be blamed for it. Politico asked Trump if he was worried about the GOP being "blamed" for failure to keep the government open.

“I don’t worry about that,” the president said during a brief call. “People that are smart see what’s happening. The Democrats are deranged.”

Yes, well, that's a given. In case people didn't get the message, Trump posted a deepfake on Truth Social. It's definitely not safe for work, for anyone who doesn't like to hear certain bodily functions mentioned in public, or for anyone who objects to scatalogical references.

FYI: It's hilarious.

Caution: Some obscene Language

The ever-reliable Democratic Party propaganda organ, the New York Times, actually went ahead and fact-checked the tongue-in-cheek deepfaked video. I guess they didn't have anything else to write about, so they had to make stuff up.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told the press after his meeting with Trump at the White House that he was thinking of changing careers and will go on the road as a mindreader.

“He was not aware that Americans would pay — so many Americans, tens of millions of Americans — would pay huge increases in their health care bills,” Schumer told reporters. “And he was not aware that the real effect of that starts Oct. 1st, not Dec. 31. So it seemed from his body language and some of the things he said that he was not aware of the ramifications.”

Trump didn't come out and say he was "not aware" of the effects of the shutdown, so Schumer read his mind and told us what he was thinking.

Stick to politics, Chuckie. People will still laugh at you, but at least you'll still get all those great perks that come from feeding at the public trough.

Republicans are supremely confident that, since the Republican House passed a "clean" Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government for about seven weeks, they can easily portray the Democrats as "obstructionists."

Politico:

Yesterday’s Playbook PM revealed nonpartisan polling suggesting people are indeed more likely to blame the GOP for a shutdown. But Republicans are feeling buoyed by separate numbers from Republican polling firm co/efficient, Playbook’s Ali Bianco reports.
The polling memo, shared exclusively with Playbook, shows that 34 percent of registered voters said they will blame Democrats for a shutdown, compared to 27 percent who said they will blame Republicans — which two Republican leadership aides touted to Playbook as a seven-point advantage for the congressional GOP.
But there is another way to slice it: The question gave voters five options for who they’d blame for a shutdown: “Democrats,” “Republicans,” the “White House,” “everyone” and “unsure.” In addition to the partisan numbers, 8 percent of voters said they’d blame the White House; combine that with the number for the GOP, and 35 percent of voters blame either the Republicans or White House, while 34 percent blame Dems — a statistical tie in a poll with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.5 points. Another 28 percent of voters said they’d blame everyone.

This is still a 50-50 country. Close to half the people will blame Republicans, and close to half will blame Democrats. The small number of people who can't make up their minds or don't care are immaterial to an issue that will be forgotten by this time next year. The shutdown, as I've said before, is interesting only to people desperate for something to write about and politicians who are all using it as ammunition for their next campaign.

Eventually, as we all know, the two sides will drop the posturing and come together to pass something in the final act. We also know that it's likely to add a couple of more zeroes to the deficit, as these CR's always do.

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