The federal government shut down on October 1st of last year. It reopened 43 days later. Forty-three days. The longest government shutdown in American history.
Frank wants to talk about what happened to the people responsible for it.
They are still in office. Still being paid. Still receiving full federal benefits. Still making speeches about how the other party caused the whole thing. Several of them went on television during the shutdown to explain why it was not their fault. Several of them will run for reelection and probably win.
Frank wants to talk about what would happen to you if you shut down your workplace for 43 days.
What the shutdown actually cost.
Frank is not interested in the political arguments about who caused it. Both sides made those arguments loudly and at length and Frank watched approximately none of it because Frank has learned that the arguments are always the same regardless of which party is talking and the shutdown always ends the same way with a continuing resolution that kicks the actual argument down the road.
What Frank is interested in is the cost. Not the political cost. The actual dollar cost to actual people.
Federal employees went without paychecks for 43 days. Some of them are not wealthy people. Some of them had mortgages and car payments and grocery bills that did not pause because Congress could not agree on a budget. Some of them took out loans. Some of them visited food banks. Some of them did things that people do when they go six weeks without income because the people who control their paychecks could not do their jobs.
The people who control their paychecks continued to receive their own paychecks during this period because Congress passed a law years ago ensuring that members of Congress continue to be paid during shutdowns. Frank has noted this. Frank considers it relevant information.
The 43-day record.
The previous record for the longest shutdown was 35 days, set in 2018 and 2019. That shutdown was also about a budget disagreement. It also ended with a continuing resolution. It also resulted in nobody being fired.
Frank has noticed a pattern.
The shutdowns happen. They cost money. They hurt people who did nothing wrong. They end with a temporary fix. The temporary fix expires. The same argument resumes. Another shutdown becomes possible. The people responsible for all of it continue to be employed and paid and occasionally appear on television to explain why it is not their fault.
This is the system. Frank did not design it. Frank is describing it.
What the Constitution says about this.
Frank keeps coming back to the document because the document is where the job description is written.
The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse. This is not a suggestion. It is the foundational power of the legislative branch. The Founders put it there deliberately because they understood that controlling the money is how you control the government. A Congress that cannot exercise its most fundamental power is not doing its constitutional job.
Frank is not sure what the remedy is for a Congress that fails to do its constitutional job on a recurring basis while continuing to be paid and reelected. The Founders assumed that the voters would handle this. The voters have had several opportunities. The results are recorded in the historical record that includes the shutdown of 2018, the shutdown of 2023, and now the shutdown of 2025 which lasted 43 days and broke the previous record.
Frank votes in every election. Frank reads the Constitution before he goes. Frank looks at the voting records of the people on the ballot. Frank makes a decision based on what those people actually did rather than what they said.
Frank would suggest you try the same approach.
Nobody got fired for the 43-day shutdown. That part is up to you.
— Frank