As someone who has spent years in Washington and decades in the private sector, I understand the frustrations that many conservatives feel about our federal government.
- It’s bloated.
- It’s careless with taxpayer dollars.
- It grows larger each year without accountability.
Bureaucracies expand while families tighten their belts.
Federal employees often enjoy job protections and benefits that most private-sector workers can only dream of.
And with a national debt now exceeding $35 trillion, the sense that government has become both wasteful and unsustainable is not just a talking point — it’s a reality.
That frustration leads some to see government shutdowns as an act of fiscal discipline, a dramatic way to “teach Washington a lesson.”
I get it.
Symbolically, it feels like a way of taking a stand against runaway spending.
But here’s the truth: government shutdowns don’t solve debt crises.
They’re theatrical, unnecessary, and they almost always harm the very people we should be supporting.
Consider the consequences.
When a shutdown occurs, “non-essential” employees are furloughed while “essential” workers — our men and women in uniform, our border patrol, air traffic controllers, TSA agents, and others — are forced to show up without pay until Congress gets its act together.
Yes, they eventually receive back pay when the government reopens.
But that doesn’t erase the stress of missed paychecks, the worry about mortgages, groceries, and car payments, or the insult of being treated like pawns in a political game.
Think about that for a moment.
We ask soldiers to put their lives on the line for our country, border patrol agents to defend our sovereignty, and air traffic controllers to protect our skies.
Yet we allow them to go unpaid because politicians in Washington want to make a point.
That is unacceptable.
Essential employees should never be placed in that situation.
Never.
Shutdowns are also a poor substitute for real solutions.
They don’t reduce the debt, streamline agencies, or cut wasteful programs.
They’re temporary disruptions that end with the same bloated system back in place, usually with a continuing resolution that simply extends the status quo. The only difference is that Americans lose faith in government’s ability to function, and workers who don’t deserve to suffer are caught in the crossfire.
Who wins in a shutdown? . . .
Rarely the American people.
More often, the winners are politicians from whichever party can spin the situation most effectively. This means, shutdowns become battles of messaging and optics.
The side that controls the narrative in the media tends to emerge looking stronger, regardless of the underlying realities.
That has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility or long-term solutions.
It has everything to do with political theater.
This writer has seen it firsthand.
When the cameras are rolling, lawmakers pound the table about waste, fraud, and abuse.
However, behind the scenes, the same lawmakers protect pet projects and refuse to make tough choices on entitlement reform, spending caps, and budget priorities.
The individuals responsible for fixing the debt crisis — the very people who run up the bills — are never the ones who feel the consequences of a shutdown.
Members of Congress continue to collect their paychecks while essential workers wait for theirs. That’s part of the problem.
Speaking of optics, senators going home during the shutdown are now reluctantly being forced into second-guessing those high dollar fundraisers taking place as paychecks don’t go out for the little people.
They want you to eat cake as they have it and eat it.
There’s a better way to demonstrate fiscal discipline.
If we truly want to rein in spending, we need to make structural reforms addressing the drivers of our debt: mandatory spending, interest payments, and an unwillingness to tackle entitlement reform.
We need a serious conversation about what government should and should not be doing, and we need to demand transparency in how taxpayer dollars are spent.
None of that is accomplished by shutting down the government for a few weeks and then kicking the can down the road.
Shutdowns also damage America’s credibility abroad.
At a time when our enemies are emboldened — China expanding its influence, Russia at war, Iran funding terrorism — a shutdown signals dysfunction and weakness.
It tells the world that the most powerful nation on earth can’t keep its own government open, even as it preaches stability and order elsewhere. That weakens our negotiating position, undermines our allies’ confidence, and emboldens adversaries.
As conservatives, we need to separate the symbolism of a shutdown from the reality of what it accomplishes.
True leadership isn’t about grand gestures that make headlines for a few days.
It’s about delivering results for the long term.
If our goal is to reduce debt and restore fiscal sanity, we should not waste time on political theater that harms essential workers and undermines national security.
Instead, we should focus on structural reforms, responsible budgeting, and restoring trust in government through accountability.
As Americans, we deserve better than a government that lurches from one manufactured crisis to another. We deserve leaders who confront hard truths, who protect those serving on the front lines, and who are willing to make real cuts where they are needed.
Shutting down the government does none of that.
It’s a sideshow, a distraction, and ultimately, a failure of leadership.
Yes, the government is bloated.
Yes, taxpayer dollars are wasted.
Yes, Washington is broken.
But the solution is not to pull the rug out from under our soldiers, our border patrol, and the people who keep America safe while politicians play games.
The solution is to do the hard work of reforming government, cutting waste, and living within our means. That requires courage, vision, and honesty — not a shutdown circus.
Jim Renacci is a former U.S. Congressman, businessman, and conservative leader dedicated to putting America first. Read More of his Reports — Here.
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