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BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
15 December 2025
2025 is PolitiFact’s Year of the Lies 15DEZ25
10 November 2025
Senate advances plan to end historic shutdown in bipartisan breakthrough, The 8 Senate Democratic Caucus members who voted to end the shutdown 9NOV25
The U.S. Capitol is seen on the 34th day of a government shutdown, Nov. 3, 2025. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
I have been trying to get through to Sen Tim Kaine's D.C. office, the line to speak to someone is constantly busy, hopefully they are hearing from constituents as outraged as I am. Here is my e mail to Sen Kaine, and the articles are from Politico.....
I am disgusted and outraged that you gave in to the immoral, cruel and illegal budget demands of the neo-nazi authoritarian drumpf / trump administration and the gop / greed over people-republican party. I never thought you would turn into a spineless jellyfish democrat. How absolutely pathetic! Why do you believe thune will even hold a vote on the healthcare issues, and if anything was passed that it would then be voted on and passed by the house? This fascist heritage foundation project 2025 government has shown time after time they are not going to support the traditional American Social Contract and they have made it very clear Hell would freeze over before they will support any funding for the now decimated social safety net. It would have been better to continue to defy drumpf / trump-vance and the republicans and keep the government closed until the people, united, took action and forced the government to serve us and not just the mega millionaires and billionaires. YOU need to reverse your position and rejoin the loyal opposition or leave the Democratic Party because right now you are not representing our best interest, you are not one of us.
Senate advances plan to end historic shutdown in bipartisan breakthrough
The framework lawmakers agreed to Sunday night would not guarantee an extension of the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits.
By Jordain Carney 11/09/2025 06:59 PM EST Updated:
The Senate voted to break the shutdown stalemate Sunday, paving the way for the government to reopen as soon as later this week.
The 60-40 vote to take the first step toward ending the shutdown came hours after enough Democrats agreed to support a package that would fund multiple agencies and programs for the full fiscal year, and all others until Jan. 30, 2026.
In exchange, Democrats have a commitment from the Trump administration to rehire government workers fired at the start of the funding lapse, and the promise of a Senate floor vote in December on legislation to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits.
In the end, eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted Sunday night to advance the House-passed stopgap, which is being used as a vehicle for the larger funding deal.
The vote will pave the way for consideration later this week of a legislative package that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress for all of current fiscal year — the product of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations between top appropriators.
All other agencies would be funded through Jan. 30, according to the text of a continuing resolution released Sunday. The agreement still needs to pass the House before the government can be reopened.
“After 40 long days, I’m hopeful we can bring this shutdown to an end,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said shortly before the vote.
The framework to end the shutdown was painstakingly negotiated by Thune and members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, including Sens. Angus King, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan. Rank-and-file Republicans were also at the negotiating table, alongside members of the Senate Appropriations Committee including Chair Susan Collins.
The breakthrough came 40 days into the shutdown and as the consequences were quickly becoming more dire — from legal confusion over the disbursement of SNAP food assistance to the decision to cancel thousands of flights out of major airports to relieve overworked and unpaid air traffic controllers.
As part of the deal, Democratic negotiators agreed to ensure at least eight members from their caucus would approve procedural motions to advance the government funding package. There are still additional steps before the Senate can pass the funding deal, but Sunday’s vote sent a strong signal that Senate GOP leaders now have the necessary support in their chamber to pass legislation to end the longest shutdown in history.
Progressives, however, are privately warning they will not yield back all the time required before a final passage vote, an act of resistance that could delay the shutdown several more days. Leaders are also watching Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has threatened to hold up passage due to a policy dispute. The Senate, however, is expected to leave for a previously scheduled weeklong recess as soon as it can clear the funding package for the House, which could incentivize lawmakers not to hold up the process.
Following the vote late Sunday, Thune said it “remains to be seen” how quickly the Senate will be able to get to a final vote on the spending deal, including if senators will agree to yield back time Monday. Paul wants a vote to remove hemp language as part of the three-bill minibus and a “guarantee,” according to Thune, that the amendment will be successful.
Thune also cited concerns among three conservatives senators — Mike Lee, Ron Johnson and Rick Scott — who delayed voting on the procedural measure because they wanted to talk about the “overall budget process.” Johnson, according to Thune, also had shutdown-related legislation that he wants a vote on.
The breakthrough follows weeks of closed-door negotiations not only among a bipartisan group of rank-and-file senators but also Thune and, according to one of the people granted anonymity to share private conversations, President Donald Trump.
As part of Democrats’ agreement to end the shutdown, Thune is promising Senate Democrats a vote in mid-December to extend ACA subsidies that are due to expire at the end of the year without congressional action. Democrats will also get to determine what bill providing that extension gets voted on.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who represents about 150,000 federal workers and was involved in negotiations over the RIF language, said shortly after the deal was announced that he would support it.
“I have long said that to earn my vote, we need to be on a path toward fixing Republicans’ health care mess and to protect the federal workforce,” Kaine said in a statement.
Kaine and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) had been in talks all day Sunday on that one final provision Kaine was pushing, with the White House finally signing off on some of the language by Sunday evening, according to two people granted anonymity to share details of the closed-door negotiations.
Right after breaking with much of his caucus to advance the deal on the floor late Sunday evening, Kaine was seen shaking Britt’s hand.
But many progressives in the Senate — along with a large number of House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — think any deal that doesn’t enact an extension of the ACA tax credits is insufficient. And the agreement got quick pushback within corners of the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses, with members questioning why their party would fold days after winning key off-year elections and without an agreement yet on their key demand.
“I think it’s a terrible mistake,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told reporters Sunday evening, signaling she’d vote no. “The American people want us to stand and fight for health care, and that’s what I believe we should do.”
Jeffries added in a statement that “we will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. We will fight the GOP bill in the House of Representatives, where [Speaker] Mike Johnson will be compelled to end the seven week Republican taxpayer-funded vacation.”
House Democratic leadership has insisted the health subsidies be addressed in legislation rather than a handshake compromise, especially as Johnson has refused to offer Democrats the same promise of a vote on an extension in his chamber.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who took heat from the progressive base for leading his party in shoring up the votes to prevent a government shutdown back in March, made clear Sunday night he was also holding back his support over the future of the credits.
“We asked President Trump to step in and meet with us to deliver lower health care for Americans, and, instead, Donald Trump has taken the American people hostage. … I must vote no,” Schumer said from the Senate floor shortly before the vote.
Lawmakers who were negotiating on behalf of the Senate Democratic Caucus defended the deal in a news conference Sunday night, saying the promise of a vote should be counted as a major victory.
“We have a guaranteed vote by a guaranteed date on a bill that we will write,” said Shaheen of Democrats, though she added it was important to engage with Republicans on a bipartisan product that could get signed into law.
King said that there was “no guarantee” the extension would be enacted by Dec. 31 but that it was clear this was the best deal on the subsidies Democrats were going to get, since Republicans weren’t backing down from their position they would not negotiate on health care while the government remained shuttered.
“There was zero chance of dealing with the ACA issue as long as the shutdown continued. Now, I don’t know, 50-50? But there’s a lot better chance now than there was this morning because,” said King. “There was no evidence another week, or another two weeks, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, was suddenly, Republicans would come to us and say, ‘Oh, we now want to talk about the ACA.’ If they weren’t going to do it by now, what was going to change in the next two weeks?”
House GOP leaders are now watching to see how long it will take the Senate to approve the agreement, especially if angry progressives across the Capitol refuse to fast-track the process, according to three people granted anonymity to share their direct knowledge of the matter.
The House could return by the end of this week to approve the deal, if the Senate clears it in the coming days. Assuming Trump gives it the green light, it’s expected enough House Republicans will fall in line to back it.
House GOP hard-liners will likely grumble about pieces of the funding bills, but senior Senate Republicans worked through several contentious issues with House Republicans behind the scenes in recent days to stave off an 11th-hour conflict.
Johnson will update Republicans on the House plans during a call with members Monday morning, according to three Republicans granted anonymity to share private meeting details.
And despite Jeffries’ opposition, a handful of centrist House Democrats are also currently inclined to vote to reopen the government, which would make up for any vote shortfall on the GOP side of the aisle. But that’s pending final details of the Senate agreement, according to two Democrats granted anonymity to speak candidly.
While attending a Sunday night football game outside Washington, Trump appeared optimistic the end of the longest government shutdown in history might be finally within reach.
“It looks like we’re getting very close to the shutdown ending,” he told reporters.
Katherine Tully-McManus, Meredith Lee Hill, Nicholas Wu, Calen Razor and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
The 8 Senate Democratic Caucus members who voted to end the shutdown
Eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus broke ranks Sunday and voted to advance a deal to reopen the federal government.
That’s fewer than the 10 Democrats who broke ranks in March to advance a previous GOP-led stopgap funding bill — a move that sparked a huge backlash against Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
There are few obvious threads connecting the group who broke the partisan impasse this time. Some of them helped broker the agreement with Republicans over the opposition of Schumer and most other Democrats, who wanted a guaranteed extension for expiring federal health insurance subsidies.
Most, but not all, previously held state-level office — including four former governors. Most, but not all, come from presidential swing states. Two have announced they are retiring from the Senate after their current terms end, and two are senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
None are up for reelection in 2026.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada
Cortez Masto has voted 15 times to end the federal government shutdown, even before Democrats had extracted the promise of a vote on the health care tax credits. She repeatedly stated she did not want to inflict sweeping pain on some Americans in order to extract a solution to “the impending health care crisis” of expiring tax credits.
She described “lines like I haven’t seen since the pandemic” for food banks in Nevada to reporters during the vote Sunday night and said that that opening the government “was key to stopping that pain.”
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois
Durbin is the Democratic whip and the only member of party leadership who voted with Republicans to advance the deal to end the shutdown. His likely successor as whip, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), voted against advancing the deal after sticking with Schumer and Durbin in March.
“This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt,” Durbin said in a statement. “Now that Democrats secured these wins, it’s time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA tax credits in December.” He is retiring next year after three decades in office.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania
Fetterman has been a consistent vote to end the shutdown since it began, voting more than a dozen times with Republicans to move forward with reopening the government. He’s knocked his party for sparking the shutdown and blamed them for government workers missing paychecks and low income families losing federal food aid.
Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire
Hassan, who was one of the Democrats who negotiated the vote on the Affordable Care Act tax credits deal. A former New Hampshire governor, she is up for reelection in 2028.
“I’ve heard from Granite Staters who can’t afford a doubling of their health insurance costs. I’ve also heard from families about the deep pain that the government shutdown has caused,” Hassan told reporters Sunday, highlighting the dueling pressures Democrats were under to cut a deal.
Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia
Kaine represents about 150,000 federal workers affected by the shutdown and backed the deal that includes a key provision for his state: reinstatement of federal workers impacted by mass “reduction in force” firings during the shutdown.
“This legislation will protect federal workers from baseless firings, reinstate those who have been wrongfully terminated during the shutdown, and ensure federal workers receive back pay,” he said in a statement. Kaine admitted Sunday night that he was a latecomer to the group, saying, “I joined it 48 hours ago, not for lack of interest.”
Sen. Angus King of Maine
King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, was a key negotiator on the deal struck to guarantee a vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits once the government is open. He hosted multiple meetings in his Capitol hideaway in recent weeks as the compromise came together.
A former governor of Maine, King pointed to the pain the shutdown is causing with federal aid programs halted. “We are closer to the possibility of work on the ACA tax credits for the people of this country than we were yesterday, than we were a week ago, two weeks ago, or a month ago,” he said Sunday.
Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada
Rosen joined her fellow Nevadan Cortez Masto to vote to advance the deal, representing a state where 95,000 Nevadans utilize the ACA tax credits. Like King, she was just reelected in 2024.
“Trump and his Republican cronies on Capitol Hill do not give a damn about hurting working people, and their conduct over the last month has been nothing short of appalling, Rosen said in a statement. She called the ACA tax credit vote “the concession we’ve been able to extract.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
Shaheen was an original sponsor of the legislation that created the enhanced Obamaca
re tax credits that have been central to the shutdown dispute and played a key role in negotiating the vote to extend them. Like Durbin, she is retiring from the Senate next year and has spent much of her Senate career on the Appropriations Committee. She was also part of shaping the new stopgap spending bill that, in tandem with the ACA vote promise, could open the government.
“This was the only deal on the table. It was our best chance to reopen the government and immediately begin negotiations to extend the ACA tax credits,” Shaheen said Sunday night.
CORRECTION:A previous version of this article misreported how many times Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has voted to end the shutdown.