Even Washington Post Slams Democrats Over Shutdown: ‘This Is How Entitlement Programs Work’

Conservative News DailyOctober 7, 2025

The article discusses a recent Washington post editorial that criticizes the Democratic Party for its role in causing the current government shutdown. Traditionally a democratic-leaning publication, the Washington Post’s editorial assigns clear blame to Democrats, particularly for demanding the extension of costly COVID-era health insurance subsidies without proposing funding solutions. Wyoming Republican Senator john Barrasso cited the editorial in a Senate speech to highlight the Democrats’ failure and political miscalculation, dubbing the situation the “Schumer Shutdown” after senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The editorial points out that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has never been truly affordable,with higher costs than expected due to smaller risk pools. It also notes that the subsidies have become politically difficult to roll back as many Americans have come to depend on them. The piece suggests Democrats see extending these subsidies as a politically favorable issue, despite the financial implications. The article further notes that under new ownership by Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post shows signs of shifting away from its past liberal bias, as evidenced by this editorial. For Democrats, this shift and the editorial’s harsh critique signify a political warning amid the ongoing shutdown debate.

When Republicans are quoting a Washington Post editorial, Democrats should be seeing the writing on the wall.

The capital city newspaper has been a Democratic booster for decades, but an editorial published Sunday blasted the party’s role in provoking the current government shutdown so badly that Wyoming Republican John Barrasso used the piece as ammunition in a speech on the Senate floor.

The editorial put the blame for the shutdown exactly where it belongs.

The @washingtonpost Editorial Board delivers some tough truths to Democrats about the follies of the #SchumerShutdown https://t.co/0o9FOyoqNs pic.twitter.com/XsgMYCZq5w

— Kate Cooksey Noyes (@Cooksey__) October 6, 2025

“Democrats are losing the Schumer Shutdown,” Barrasso, the Senate majority whip, said in the Monday speech, according to a news release from his office.

“Even their media allies are turning on them. Here is an editorial from The Washington Post today. The headline is, ‘The shutdown conversation no one wants.’ The Washington Post Editorial Board wrote this: ‘Democrats have demanded that Republicans agree to extend the covid-era insurance subsidies without proposing any way to pay for it. The Congressional Budget Office estimates this will cost $350 billion over the next decade.’ That’s The Washington Post talking – not Republicans.”

The editorial is phrased in no-nonsense language — and it’s devastating for Democrats.

After a few paragraphs of obligatory, blame-both-sides background, the editorial settles down to getting to the heart of the Democratic demands: Expanding the bane of Obamacare.

“The real problem is that the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable,” the editorial explained. “President Barack Obama’s signature achievement allowed people to buy insurance on marketplaces with subsidies based on their income. The architects of the program assumed that risk pools would be bigger than they turned out to be. As a result, policies cost more than expected.”

So, the program was more costly than Democrats claimed and wasn’t nearly the success that Democrats predicted. Who would have thought?

That, of course, doesn’t make the party of big government back away from either the claims or the predictions. The political optics are just too tempting for the left, as the editorial stated.

“Democrats picked this fight because they see health care as a winning issue. A Post poll, conducted on the first day of the shutdown, found that 71 percent of Americans say federal insurance subsidies should be extended while 29 percent say they should end as scheduled. Just as significantly, the question divides Republicans: 38 percent support extending the subsidies, and 62 percent want them to end,” the editorial continued.

“This is how entitlement programs work. Once you habituate people to some generous government handout, they grow dependent on it. And it becomes politically perilous, if not impossible, to fully claw it back. Conservatives fought so hard to stop Obamacare 15 years ago because they anticipated fights like this one.”

Those are hard words for liberals from a newspaper they could once rely on — they’re almost calculated to hurt Chuck Schumer’s feelings.

This is the Senate minority leader’s shutdown, after all, political theater aimed at staving off a primary challenge next year from the left — particularly from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

And it’s evident that Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos’ stated intention to turn the outlet around is having at least some effect.

Still, an institutional history of liberal bias doesn’t go away overnight — and old, old habits evidently die hard.

So The Washington Post’s loyal readers probably expect it to remain the company newsletter in a company town where the business is better known as the federal government — a forum where Democrats could always expect a sympathetic portrayal.

Under Bezos’ ownership, that isn’t happening with the government shutdown.

And for Democrats, that should be the writing on the wall.