Joshua Green, Columnist

What Makes This Standoff Worse Than Other Government Shutdowns

The map for ending the stalemate must be charted through Trump’s head.

January 24, 2019 at 9:00 AM UTC

Joshua Green is a national correspondent at Bloomberg Businessweek and the author of "The Rebels: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Struggle for a New American Politics"

Federal employees rally in Washington on Jan. 23 for a congressional vote to end the shutdown.
Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

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This article is part of the January 28, 2019 issue of businessweek.

As the record-long government shutdown barrels into its second month, you may have noticed that this stalemate differs from previous ones. Not only is it dragging on longer and causing more economic damage, it’s also resisting the usual forces of resolution. Past shutdowns feel almost quaint by comparison.

There have been 10 since 1980, and two already during Donald Trump’s brief presidency. By now, a familiar process has arisen through which these deadlocks resolve themselves: the combination of cable news clocks, tales of hardship, besieged lawmakers, and worsening poll numbers ratchets up pressure until one side or the other capitulates. That was the case with last year’s Democrat-led shutdown, meant to force progress on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and also with the Republican one in 2013 that sought to block the Affordable Care Act.