Analysis | Why the shutdown ended - and what to watch for now

Analysis | Why the shutdown ended - and what to watch for now
shutdown, reopen, wall, border wall, funding, ppinclude, Trump, Congress, Pelosi, McConnell
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Congress and the president agreed to pass seven stopgap spending bills to fund government agencies through Feb. 15. This brings an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. (Carolyn Kaster/AP) By Sarah Binder Sarah Binder Email Bio January 26 at 10:23 AM Congress and the president reached a deal Friday, ending the longest government shutdown in American history - at least for the next three weeks. President Trump came away empty-handed, with no money to build a border wall. The agreement handed a victory to the Democrats, who had insisted that they would only negotiate over border security after Trump and Senate Republicans agreed to reopen the government. Technically, Congress and the president agreed to pass seven stopgap spending bills (known as “continuing resolutions”) to fund government agencies through February 15. That gives House and Senate negotiators three weeks to hammer out a deal on homeland security - and on spending for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. If they can’t do that, the government could close again when the stopgap bills expire on February 15. Here’s how lawmakers and Trump reached the deal, what to keep an eye on in the weeks ahead. 1. Polarized parties playing a blame game Today’s highly competitive and polarized parties can’t typically make deals by looking for areas of agreement. Such ideological sweet spots to anchor a deal are just too rare on most issues - especially one as polarizing for as immigration. [What will it take to end the shutdown? Watch these three things.] Instead of searching for common ground, the parties play a blame game. Each party blames the other for unpopular policies while trying to dodge blame themselves. A party wins by successfully pinning more blame on the other party. The game only ends when one party decides that the costs to its reputation of refusing to fold are greater than the benefits of continuing to wage war. That explains why this government shutdown - as well as closures in 1995 and 2013 - ended with one party claiming victory and the other getting little in return. In 2013, Republicans vowed to block bills to fund the government until Democrats agreed to defund the Affordable Care Act. Observers pinned the blame on the GOP for the stalemate, and Democrats essentially got what they wanted at the bargaining table, including funding for Obamacare. In contrast, the short-lived shutdown last February over Democrats’ demands on behalf of “dreamers” (beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) lasted just a few days because Democrats quickly folded when they realized public opinion was against them. 2. The public calls the shots In a televised Oval Office meeting with the Democratic leaders in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in December, Trump famously vowed to shoulder the blame for a government shutdown if the Democrats refused to fund a border wa