A bipartisan deal led by moderate Democrats to end the long, painful government shutdown exposes Massachusetts’ far-left senators as politically motivated obstructionists and casts doubt on efforts to blame the shutdown solely on President Trump and Republicans.
Trump appears to have won the standoff after eight moderate Democrats, led by New Hampshire’s two senators, defected and agreed to end the shutdown without securing a guarantee to fund Obamacare.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey voted to continue the stalemate despite growing fears about how the shutdown has impacted their constituents. Democrats’ attempts to label it the “Trump shutdown” and Republicans’ efforts to brand it the “Schumer shutdown” haven’t resonated with voters. Polling suggests Americans blame both sides equally.
A YouGov survey conducted last week before the deal was announced showed the public is divided over who to blame for the impasse: 35% blamed Republicans, 32% blamed Democrats, and 28% blamed both sides. Notably, the percentage blaming the GOP dropped 4% from a previous survey, while the percentage blaming both sides rose 4%, indicating Americans are increasingly fed up with the blame game.
More than one-third of Americans in the recent YouGov survey said they were affected either “a great deal” or “somewhat” by the shutdown, up from 21% in the prior month’s survey.
The vote to reopen the government exposed a deep rift within the Democratic Party. Fuming liberal Democrats who opposed the bipartisan plan criticized fellow senators from their own party for “surrendering” to Republicans, calling it a “dark day” for Democrats. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer faced calls from some members to resign, even though he ultimately voted against the deal.
Despite growing voter concerns over the shutdown’s impacts — including flight delays, cancellations, and food insecurity for low-income families — Markey, Warren, and other Democrats chose politics over aiding Americans who lost their jobs or were severely affected by the shutdown.
In a carefully worded statement, Markey said he was holding firm because the deal did not guarantee continued Obamacare subsidies. “I am glad this deal means the government will reopen, that public servants will be returning to work, and that they will receive their paychecks,” Markey said after the 60-40 vote. “But this legislation does nothing concrete to lower health care costs for millions of Americans from MAGA Republican attacks, and I cannot support it.”
Warren echoed this sentiment, stating, “I will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable. The fight to lower costs is a righteous fight, and we must not give it up.” She added that Democrats’ “most important job is to fight back. A vote for this legislation is a mistake.”
However, other blue-state New England senators played a key role in making the deal happen. Moderate Democrats who sensibly voted to reopen the government included Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, as well as Angus King, an independent who votes with Democrats, from Maine.
“After weeks of bipartisan negotiations, I voted today to reopen the government so that we can get back to the work of helping Granite Staters,” Hassan said. “This agreement funds SNAP and food assistance programs, ensures that law enforcement, air traffic controllers, and other federal workers get paid, reverses the President’s recent reckless layoffs and prevents them from happening in the future, and critically, gives Congress a clear path forward to protecting people’s health care.”
Shaheen voted to end the shutdown even though she is retiring in 2026 and won’t face a reelection vote.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/11/11/battenfeld-shutdown-deal-exposes-warren-markey-as-politically-motivated-obstructionists/
