While protesters chant “No Kings” in the streets, Democrats have done the one thing guaranteed to create one—hand the presidency unchecked authority through its own inaction. The government shutdown, now entering its third week, is less about budgets than about power. And the people who warned America about authoritarianism are the ones expanding it.
When Congress refuses to fund the government, it surrenders the one constitutional weapon the Founders gave it—the power of the purse. Under the Antideficiency Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 1341, 1342, 1511-1519), agencies cannot spend a dollar without congressional appropriations, except to protect life and property. Who defines those exceptions? The President and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). That means the Executive Branch decides which programs live, which die, and which employees remain “essential.” OMB Circular A-11, Section 124, gives every department authority—under presidential supervision—to implement shutdown plans that suspend, consolidate, or redirect operations. In short, the President rules by interpretation.
This shutdown didn’t have to happen. The Senate has failed 11 times to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR). This simple stopgap measure keeps the government funded temporarily while lawmakers negotiate long-term spending bills. What makes this impasse especially absurd is that it involves a clean CR—one without policy riders or partisan giveaways. Historically, Democrats have supported such clean resolutions to protect essential services. But this time they refused, not over spending levels, but because they wanted to attach health-care subsidy extensions tied to the Affordable Care Act.
Under standard legislative procedure, healthcare provisions—such as ACA subsidies, Medicaid funding, or Medicare adjustments—are handled through separate legislation, such as reconciliation bills or specific healthcare acts, rather than as part of a short-term CR. In plain English: you don’t rewrite national healthcare law inside a temporary budget patch. It’s like refusing to pay rent because you want your landlord to rebuild the entire neighborhood first. Even many Democratic budget veterans quietly admit this is not normal. Yet Senate leadership chose to stall a clean funding bill in pursuit of a political trophy. And by doing so, they handed President Trump something far more valuable than a policy win—expanded executive discretion to decide what functions of government survive during the shutdown.
During a shutdown, the Antideficiency Act and OMB guidance merge into a framework of “operational discretion.” The White House and agency heads determine what qualifies as essential. They control who stays on the job, which contracts are frozen, and which services continue. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974, designed to prevent presidents from withholding congressionally approved funds, becomes toothless because no funds are available to release. The result is practical autocracy: the President interprets necessity, and Congress watches from the sidelines.
That’s how every additional day of gridlock gives the Oval Office more precedent to shrink, reorganize, or redirect government—without legislation. And this time, it gives Trump the ability to demonstrate how leaner executive control can function while Washington bickers.
Nearly eighteen percent of the federal workforce is Black. Federal employment has long been a ladder to the middle class for families locked out of private-sector opportunity. When paychecks stop, mortgage payments, car notes, and tuition bills pile up. Black-owned contractors, depending on federal work, lose revenue. Small businesses serving government hubs face empty lobbies. Federal programs that stabilize low-income communities—from Section 8 housing to small-business grants—pause indefinitely. So while Washington’s elites argue over process, working-class Americans—disproportionately Black—bear the cost of a political chess match that was never theirs to play.
Thomas Sowell often wrote that outcomes, not intentions, should be the basis for judging policy. The outcome here is unmistakable: a shutdown that weakens Congress, strengthens President Trump, and punishes ordinary Americans. The longer this continues, the more the balance of power shifts toward the Executive. Congress may one day reopen the government, but it will find that the presidency has already expanded its reach.
You cannot claim to defend democracy while refusing to perform the basic duty of governing. Each day of delay doesn’t just close offices—it redefines power. And when the smoke clears, the President will be stronger, not weaker, because Congress handed him the scepter while pretending to resist the crown.
Understanding the political process isn’t optional—it’s the only safeguard against manipulation. You can’t have a “No Kings” rally while the very officials waving that slogan are surrendering their authority through negligence. When lawmakers refuse to pass a simple Continuing Resolution, they aren’t checking the Executive—they’re empowering it. Every shutdown becomes a civics lesson in reverse, showing that ignorance of how government functions is as dangerous as corruption itself. The Founders designed checks and balances to protect the people from concentrated power, but that system collapses the moment those elected to defend it choose performance over principle.
