It's unclear how long the shutdown will last, with the parties nowhere near an agreement. Democrats want health care money, while Republicans insist they won't be held "hostage.”

The U.S. government officially shut down after Congress and the White House failed to reach an agreement on how to extend federal funding.

Donald Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress, but it needs Democratic support to pass a bill in the Senate, where 60 votes are required. And the two parties failed to craft a bipartisan bill, with the Senate rejecting both a GOP proposal and a Democratic proposal just hours before the shutdown deadline.

It’s the first government shutdown since 2018, in Trump’s first term, which was the longest ever at 34 days, lasting into early 2019. There is no clear path to a resolution, with the two sides fundamentally at odds over how to resolve the impasse.

      • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Bottom up. You need everyone in a union, and those unions get together and call a general strike.

        This is, in fact, the only way to do it. Democrats will call off a general strike as soon as their own needs are met. When you have a coalition of unions, then everyone has a say in their union on ending it.

        • ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.comEnglish
          4·
          3 days ago

          As nice an idea as it is, coming from one who grew up in a union household, it requires a majority of people to be willing to sacrifice in order to support their peers, and I just don’t see it in the modern mentality.

          You can’t force a union in a shop without majority votes, and even then you have how many states with ‘right to work’ laws that render them largely ineffectual.

          • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            2·
            3 days ago

            Yup. The infrastructure we need for this has been dismantled over the past 70 years.

            That does not mean we should leave it to Democrats or any other political party to call a general strike. That would pay a high cost for meger results.

        • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
          3·
          3 days ago

          That’s not bottom up, that’s just a different org structure. One that doesn’t exist at this time

          You have to get people on board and coordinate… That’s the only requirement. Having Democrats call for this would get some people on board, moving a general strike from impossible to slightly less impossible

          But more importantly, it would be taking a stand. The tiniest, most performant stand, but still a step up

          • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            3·
            3 days ago

            If the union is any good at all, it’s bottom up. Unions need to be controlled by their members in a directly democratic way.

            You’re making the same mistake as MLers. The working class is too dumb to sieze the means of production themselves, so they need a political party to do it for them. A general strike called by Democrats is not one that would produce results that are worth the cost.

            • theneverfox@pawb.socialEnglish
              2·
              3 days ago

              And if the Democratic party was any good, they would be listening to the will of the people and the desire for a general strike would flow up from the people. The decision to do it would still be top down, because someone has to figure out the logistics

              There’s no general strike coming and we’re miles away from the slimmest possibility, but I’d like to hear leaders calling for one all the same

              By calling for something so anti-billionaire, they would be signaling whose side they’re on, giving them more legitimacy