MAGA Has No Clue Why the Government Shut Down

Republicans call it fiscal responsibility; the rest of us call it survival.

Harold Lloyd in Safety Last! (1923). Public domain

My Grandma Ella used to say, “If you lie down in a briar patch, don’t be surprised if you come up with thorns.” Well, I just got up from one, and I’m still picking Fox News barbs out of my skin.

MAGA is so brainwashed by the right-wing media that they have no clue why this government shutdown is happening. Seriously, try this experiment. Reach out to your favorite MAGA uncle, co-worker, or neighbor and ask:

“Why do you think the government shut down?”

I did. And they answered like a bad ventriloquist act. Fox spoke; their lips moved.

To them, this isn’t about healthcare. Republicans, they insist, are only being “fiscally responsible.” They claim the budget is “already stressed,” and that Democrats are trying to “sneak in healthcare” into a bill that should be a clean, temporary spending measure. Healthcare, they argue, must be handled “separately.”

Separately? Healthcare isn’t a side dish; it’s the meat. Pull it off the plate, and all you’ve got is a fork and regret.

Let’s do some quick math. Without ACA subsidies, the KFF estimates that average premiums will go from $888 a year to $1,900…