Government Shutdown - Sep 2025 Thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both ex Feds. We left our agencies this summer and relocated to the Midwest. I can 100% confirm that no one outside the DMV area cares what happens to Feds. No one came to support us earlier this year, and no one will come to the rescue now or in the future.

Native midwesterner here and yup, no one cares and they dont want Fed jobs relocated there either because they don’t want to be part of the swamp. I have relatives who don’t even see the value in the NWS because they are convinced Accuweather could just use AI and make forecasts better and cheaper. I’ve given up on that one.

Even the democrats in Midwest don’t?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both ex Feds. We left our agencies this summer and relocated to the Midwest. I can 100% confirm that no one outside the DMV area cares what happens to Feds. No one came to support us earlier this year, and no one will come to the rescue now or in the future.

Native midwesterner here and yup, no one cares and they dont want Fed jobs relocated there either because they don’t want to be part of the swamp. I have relatives who don’t even see the value in the NWS because they are convinced Accuweather could just use AI and make forecasts better and cheaper. I’ve given up on that one.

Even the democrats in Midwest don’t?

Most people don’t even know what the government does. Why would they value government jobs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both ex Feds. We left our agencies this summer and relocated to the Midwest. I can 100% confirm that no one outside the DMV area cares what happens to Feds. No one came to support us earlier this year, and no one will come to the rescue now or in the future.

“I moved to the Midwest and therefore know what every single person in the United States thinks.”

It’s sort of like the way DCUM thinks they know what every Democrat thinks.

[Anonymous]

I live in the Midwest and plenty of people care. There are also a lot that don’t care, but the idea that everyone is clueless is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass layoffs are coming anyway, people.

The budget cuts in the Trump budget call for slashing the State Department down 84%!!!!!! And other departments are going to suffer as well. There is no way they can get there without firing tons of people.

That's if the budget passes.

The threat to laying off people during a shutdown is disingenuous. Trump and Vought plan on letting them go anyway.

Do you guys understand this?

The point of Democrats standing up to Trump and force a shutdown is to make him lay off workers without them.

Otherwise if they approve the budget, they are complicit in the mass layoff.

I really hope you are all understanding this. The DC region is screwed either way. We can either make political hay out of this or suffer for nothing.

Do you get it?

But why aren’t Dems hammering on this? Why are they focused on what were supposed to be temporary ACA subsidies instead of laying this out to the public- I think a lot of people outside the DMV bubble are unaware what is going on.

Because the Democratic Party has had the worst public relations messaging machine in the history of America. I mean they have not been able to tell a story since Obama’s first term. Absolutely dismal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mass layoffs are coming anyway, people.

The budget cuts in the Trump budget call for slashing the State Department down 84%!!!!!! And other departments are going to suffer as well. There is no way they can get there without firing tons of people.

That's if the budget passes.

The threat to laying off people during a shutdown is disingenuous. Trump and Vought plan on letting them go anyway.

Do you guys understand this?

The point of Democrats standing up to Trump and force a shutdown is to make him lay off workers without them.

Otherwise if they approve the budget, they are complicit in the mass layoff.

I really hope you are all understanding this. The DC region is screwed either way. We can either make political hay out of this or suffer for nothing.

Do you get it?

But why aren’t Dems hammering on this? Why are they focused on what were supposed to be temporary ACA subsidies instead of laying this out to the public- I think a lot of people outside the DMV bubble are unaware what is going on.

Because people presumably care about their healthcare costs more than they care about federal workers being fired again. You'll notice the rest of the nation didn't react much when the first layoffs happened. And even though they didn't just hit the DC area, it's true our area is by far the hardest hit.

DP. This assumes that people are making the connection that the healthcare cuts will hurt THEM rather than OTHERS, because one thing that’s become pretty clear is how selfish Americans are overall.

I’m not saying this isn’t worth fighting for, I just don’t know the republicans are going to concede on reinstating something they’ve already passed, unless their constituents are connecting the dots and making enough of a fuss. Trump sure isn’t going to compromise anything that will look like a “loss” for him.

NP and I agree it makes him look like he caved if he gives in now but I wouldnt assume the credits won't be reinstated in some form. While they passed the cuts they did so to get the BBB costs down and juice the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both ex Feds. We left our agencies this summer and relocated to the Midwest. I can 100% confirm that no one outside the DMV area cares what happens to Feds. No one came to support us earlier this year, and no one will come to the rescue now or in the future.

Native midwesterner here and yup, no one cares and they dont want Fed jobs relocated there either because they don’t want to be part of the swamp. I have relatives who don’t even see the value in the NWS because they are convinced Accuweather could just use AI and make forecasts better and cheaper. I’ve given up on that one.

Even the democrats in Midwest don’t?

As a fed from California, can confirm that even the Californian democrats don't.

A lot of people have no idea what the government does. They think government = the DMV.
A lot of people are also, legitimately, very busy with their own lives and only vaguely aware of how national policy affects them.
And most people are very very bad at risk assessment and long term thinking, while so much government is about long term planning and risk reduction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both ex Feds. We left our agencies this summer and relocated to the Midwest. I can 100% confirm that no one outside the DMV area cares what happens to Feds. No one came to support us earlier this year, and no one will come to the rescue now or in the future.

Native midwesterner here and yup, no one cares and they dont want Fed jobs relocated there either because they don’t want to be part of the swamp. I have relatives who don’t even see the value in the NWS because they are convinced Accuweather could just use AI and make forecasts better and cheaper. I’ve given up on that one.

Even the democrats in Midwest don’t?

As a fed from California, can confirm that even the Californian democrats don't.

A lot of people have no idea what the government does. They think government = the DMV.
A lot of people are also, legitimately, very busy with their own lives and only vaguely aware of how national policy affects them.
And most people are very very bad at risk assessment and long term thinking, while so much government is about long term planning and risk reduction.

DP.

This is true. I was talking to someone who doesn’t know the difference between the FCC and the FAA last night. When their phones stop working, or another plane falls out of the sky, maybe they’ll care.

Remember that ~ 40% of eligible voters in this country, don’t vote.

[Anonymous]

Unless you people all run public polling firms, you have zero indication what “most” people think about anything.

[Anonymous]

Seems like trump is engineering a shutdown so he has leverage over the generals, etc that would be stranded at midnight.

[Anonymous]

DOGE was extremely unpopular. Everyone has distanced from it. Musk is out, and no one talks about it anymore.

Even my maga parents thought doge was I'll done, even if they want cuts in the government.

So I think any slash and burn would be politically untenable. Not to say they won't do it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DOGE was extremely unpopular. Everyone has distanced from it. Musk is out, and no one talks about it anymore.

Even my maga parents thought doge was I'll done, even if they want cuts in the government.

So I think any slash and burn would be politically untenable. Not to say they won't do it

They’ll do it. And then Dems will run on rebuilding, which is a much better message than what they’re doing now. It’s going to be painful, but I feel this was inevitable and I’ve been preparing for it since January.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both ex Feds. We left our agencies this summer and relocated to the Midwest. I can 100% confirm that no one outside the DMV area cares what happens to Feds. No one came to support us earlier this year, and no one will come to the rescue now or in the future.

“I moved to the Midwest and therefore know what every single person in the United States thinks.”

Totally. Didn’t you see the articles about Fed labs closing in other parts of the country and the town was distraught bc they need those Fed jobs to maintain their downtown businesses? They do care in other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Air traffic control probably would be better if it was run by the private sector.

Ah yes, just what we need. Air safety ensured by a for-profit company that wins as the lowest bidder and is upended by a new company every five years. What could possibly go wrong with that?

And the we’d have Feds running the contracts. I’m very proud of federal workers but one thing Feds get a failing grade on is running contracts. We always have the worst contracts and all the companies take advantage of us. We pay 10x what normal companies pay and we get a sub par product. Even putting out contracts for bids is problematic.

Thats because the audit have no teeth because of the way contracts are written on purposes because if there is any red line in the contract the company calls the Rep - who they paid for with campaign donations- and says hey this is way too harsh and then it the red line becomes a complete and open highway of ambiguity and then when auditors catch them, its always my bad. heres a fine. OR its lawyers getting involved because the contract is (purposefully) vague.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DOGE was extremely unpopular. Everyone has distanced from it. Musk is out, and no one talks about it anymore.

Even my maga parents thought doge was I'll done, even if they want cuts in the government.

So I think any slash and burn would be politically untenable. Not to say they won't do it

‘Was’? We still have Doge in our agency.