By The Blogging Hounds
The Washington power struggle has entered its third week — and with each passing day, the standoff looks less like a budget dispute and more like a battle for America’s soul. On Day 16 of the government shutdown, the Senate convened for a tenth vote to reopen the government, once again failing to bridge the widening partisan canyon between Republicans and Democrats.
Senate Deadlock: The Tenth Vote That Changed Nothing
The Senate took its tenth procedural vote Thursday morning on a House-passed measure to fund the government through November 21, but, as in the nine previous attempts, the effort collapsed under the weight of partisanship. The continuing resolution required 60 votes to advance and didn’t gain a single new supporter. Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), are demanding that any temporary funding deal include an extension of Affordable Care Act health insurance tax credits, which expire at year’s end.
Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), have refused to let Democrats leverage the shutdown to expand Obamacare entitlements. “They say there’s nothing to negotiate,” Schumer said Thursday morning. “That’s got to change soon—for the sake of the American people.”
But behind the rhetoric lies something much deeper: an ideological clash over whether Washington will serve the people or the bureaucracy.
Thune Pushes Pentagon Bill to Force Movement
As gridlock drags on, Thune is attempting a new strategy — advancing a full-year Pentagon appropriations bill to force Democrats’ hand. He hopes to attach a bundle of additional agency funding bills — Labor, HHS, and Education — creating a “minibus” to restart the regular appropriations process.
“If Democrats want to stop the Defense bill, I don’t think it’s very good optics for them,” Thune warned. The move puts Democrats in the awkward position of appearing to block pay for troops even as they accuse Republicans of prolonging the shutdown.
This comes just a day after President Trump signed an executive order ensuring continued pay for active-duty service members during the shutdown — a bold move that contrasts sharply with the Obama-era shutdowns that left troops unpaid.
Schumer’s ‘No Kings’ Rallies — A Political Theater for the Base
Meanwhile, Schumer is rallying his progressive base through a series of nationwide protests dubbed the “No Kings” rallies, planned for this weekend. The message — that Trump and the GOP are acting like monarchs — is meant to energize the left’s activist wing and project an image of moral resistance.
“These rallies will be an affirmation of what America’s all about,” Schumer declared on the Senate floor, promising to march alongside demonstrators.
But critics see something else entirely — a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign designed to frame the shutdown as a rebellion against tyranny while Democrats refuse to negotiate. Republican aides told The Blogging Hounds that Schumer’s strategy is “delay by design,” timed to keep the government closed until after the weekend’s rallies, ensuring maximum media impact.
Speaker Johnson: Democrats ‘Taking Time Off the Clock’
Over in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) dismissed Schumer’s demands for guaranteed health-care votes as political theater. When asked whether he would hold a House vote on the ACA subsidies, Johnson was firm: “It’s not the issue of today. It was never feasible to attach to this continuing resolution. We require the member-driven consensus process here — that’s what’s necessary.”
Johnson accused Democrats of “taking time off the clock” by refusing to negotiate, calling the health subsidy issue a “manufactured crisis.”
The Cost of Gridlock: $15 Billion a Week and Counting
According to Treasury estimates, the shutdown is now costing the U.S. economy roughly $15 billion per week — losses mounting as federal agencies furlough workers, national parks and museums shutter, and infrastructure grants freeze. For millions of Americans, this is not a political abstraction; it’s a slow bleed of economic stability.
Yet some insiders say the economic pain isn’t accidental. By dragging out the shutdown, globalist-leaning politicians could push the narrative that America’s constitutional structure — with its checks and balances and spending limits — is “unworkable.” This fuels calls for centralized, executive-driven power under the guise of “efficiency.”
The Deeper Game: Manufactured Crisis for Centralized Control
What Americans are witnessing may be more than partisan gridlock. It fits a familiar globalist pattern: create economic chaos, then offer consolidation as the solution. The same elites who demand “global governance” through the World Economic Forum and UN 2030 Agenda have always understood that crisis is the fastest path to control.
A prolonged shutdown not only damages the economy but also discredits the populist movement that returned Trump to power. The endgame, according to several sources within the intelligence community, could be to force concessions that weaken Trump’s anti-globalist agenda — or to set the stage for emergency spending authority transfers that bypass Congress altogether.
As the Apostle Paul warned in 2 Thessalonians 2, there is a restraining force holding back the “mystery of lawlessness.” That restraint — moral, constitutional, and spiritual — is precisely what the global elites seek to remove. The government shutdown is not just a fiscal standoff; it is a prophetic rehearsal for the moment when national sovereignty yields to global control.
Conclusion: America at a Crossroads
As the Senate holds its tenth vote and the shutdown grinds on, one truth remains clear: this is not merely about budgets or tax credits. It is about power — who wields it, and whether America will remain a nation under God or descend into the rule of men who think themselves kings.
The “No Kings” rally slogan cuts both ways. In the end, it is not Trump, Schumer, or Thune who holds the future — but the One King who “raises up rulers and deposes them” (Daniel 2:21). The coming days will determine whether the Republic bends toward restoration or ruin.
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The Blogging Hounds 
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