Democrats divided on whether to shut down government or vote with GOP

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Skip to end of carousel Trump presidency Follow live updates on the Trump administration.
45% : "I just cannot see my way to doing that."
43% : Government workers are classified as "nonessential" or "essential" ahead of a shutdown, and some Democrats fear a shutdown could allow DOGE -- which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency -- to more easily cut those deemed nonessential.
37% : Some argue that voting for the bill would empower Trump to dismantle more of the federal government, others that a shutdown would hurt federal workers and the government even more.
28% : Others argued that allowing the government to shut down would hurt federal workers and give Trump and Musk a freer hand to shutter federal agencies.
27% : Senators heard midway through the meeting that Education Department offices would be closed on Wednesday as Trump prepares to lay off half the agency's staff, Kaine said, underscoring how Trump has worked to bypass Congress and its power of the purse.
25% : " Republicans are using a more partisan strategy toward keeping the government open than they did during Trump's first term, when Trump invited Schumer to the White House to negotiate over cheeseburgers.
23% : "Until Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans stand down and stop holding people's money hostage, there is no reason whatsoever for Democratic lawmakers to help them," Britt Jacovich, a spokeswoman for MoveOn, said in a statement.
21% : Huffman urged Senate Democrats to oppose the bill because it would give legitimacy to Trump and Musk's efforts to slash government spending.
14% : If Democrats shut down the government to demand guardrails around Musk, they risk taking the blame for further burdening federal workers and stopping core government services -- the very things they are criticizing Trump for.
12% : "A series of federal courts have made it clear that, in their view, President Trump is acting illegally and not respecting the appropriations role of Congress," Coons said.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.