How Democrats Backed Themselves Into a Shutdown

The government shutdown that began at 12:01 a.m. is the sixth such closure in the past three decades. It was easily the most foreseeable.

That congressional Democrats would force this confrontation became clear almost from the moment they ducked a clash over spending with Republicans in March. Back then, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer convinced just enough of his members that a government shutdown would empower President Donald Trump to govern even more heedlessly and punitively than he already was. The blowback was intense. Rank-and-file Democrats—and even some party leaders—accused Schumer of surrendering one of the party’s only remaining levers in Washington without a fight.

The springtime uproar ensured that Democrats would make a tougher stand this time, and now government off