By Issues & Insights Editorial Board | October 15, 2025
Those who follow the news might have noticed something different about the current government shutdown, which is now entering its third week.
Namely, the lack of horror stories that usually accompany shutdowns. Anyone want to guess why that is?
Consider what the news media were reporting when the government shut down for more than a month starting in late 2018 – the result of a fight over funding for the border wall.
Then, the public was treated to headlines such as:
- “The Government Shutdown Is ‘Life And Death’ For Low-Wage Subcontractors Who Likely Won’t Be Repaid For Lost Time”
- “How The Shutdown Is Reaching A Breaking Point “
- “Delayed Tax Refunds. Missed Federal Paychecks. The Shutdown’s Pain Keeps Growing”
- “Government Shutdown Leaves Workers Reeling: ‘We Seem To Be Pawns’”
- “How The Federal Shutdown Is Affecting Health Programs”
- “Fallout Grows As Partial Government Shutdown Drags On”
As with most shutdowns, the press raced to record the trauma of national parks closing, with headlines such as: “National Parks Are Overflowing With Poop Thanks To The Government Shutdown.”
This time around, we’re being told things like: “Governors Tap State Funds To Keep Some National Parks Open During The Government Shutdown.”
Back then, air travelers were warned to fear for their lives:
- “Travel industry fears damage from a long government shutdown”
- “’Every day it gets less safe to fly’: air travelers begin to feel effects of shutdown”
This time, the press has spent its time reassuring passengers that their flights won’t get canceled because “commercial flights will continue to operate and airline employees will not be impacted.”
Even the fact that the Trump administration is using the shutdown to fire federal workers – which team Trump thought would pressure Democrats to cave – seems to be getting short shrift.
So why the blasé attitude by the mainstream press about this shutdown?
Because this one is 100% caused by Democrats, who refused to pass a bill to keep the government open unless Republicans agree to spend hundreds of billions on health care subsidies for wealthier Americans and illegal immigrants.
During that 2018-19 shutdown, all those horror stories in the news made sure to pin the blame on Republicans for the shutdown – which is exactly how Democrats wanted it told.
This time around, the strategy appears to be to downplay the supposed harm of a shutdown while muddying the Democrats’ responsibility for it. And the press is once again taking its marching orders from the party’s leaders.
Which helps explain why Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can declare that “Every day gets better for us,” and why the Washington Post felt comfortable reporting the other day that:
For longtime members of Congress, from both parties, this has been a very unusual government shutdown. There has been little sense of any frantic need to resolve the matter, very few late nights in the Senate and a House that has stood defiantly closed to try to force Democrats into caving to Republican demands.
Why should Democrats feel frantic, when they have an armada of water-carrying journalists at their disposal?
Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day – without fear or favor.
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