For years, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) has warned that government shutdowns are reckless, irresponsible, and harmful to working families. She has called shutdowns a failure of leadership and no way to govern. In 2013, during the Obama administration, Shaheen condemned Republicans for using budget deadlines to negotiate policy differences, saying, “We need to keep the government open and stop the politics of brinkmanship.”
But now, in 2025, Shaheen’s own words are coming back to haunt her.
During this, the longest shutdown in government history, Shaheen has shifted her message. Instead of demanding an immediate reopening of the government, she is tying any funding deal to her party’s push to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits — a completely unrelated policy issue.
As a candidate for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st District, I have criticized Shaheen’s approach. Families across New Hampshire are paying the price while Democrats in Washington play politics. Leadership means reopening the government first and putting people over politics. Shaheen should stop using this shutdown as leverage for her own partisan priorities.
In interviews last month, Shaheen said she has two priorities: avoiding a shutdown and protecting those tax credits. But when asked if she would support a clean bill to reopen the government, she refused, saying both issues must be addressed together. In other words, she is holding government funding hostage over a partisan demand — the very tactic she once denounced.
Back in 2019, Shaheen told WMUR that shutting down the government hurts families, hurts the economy, and does not solve anything. Now her message has changed. She recently told NHPR, “We ought to be able to do both. We ought to be able to get government open and make sure people can afford their health insurance.”
That sounds reasonable — until you realize her position means the government stays closed until Democrats get their way on health care subsidies.
Even Shaheen admits that nothing official is happening to end the shutdown, yet she continues to defend the strategy that helped cause it. She is blaming everybody, but refusing to take responsibility for her own votes, including her decision to oppose the House-passed continuing resolution that would have kept federal workers paid and essential services running.
The truth is, this failure of leadership lies squarely with the Democrats in Washington, who are putting politics before people. It is their votes in the Senate that are keeping the government shut down. Instead of working across the aisle to find common ground, they are doubling down on partisanship while families across New Hampshire and the country suffer.
Shaheen built her brand on moderation and pragmatism — a senator who puts people over politics. But her stance in this shutdown shows the opposite, using Washington gridlock as leverage for party priorities.
If Jeanne Shaheen truly believes what she said in the past — that government shutdowns are a failure of leadership — then it is time for her to prove it. Reopen the government first, then debate policy.
That is what real leadership looks like.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This op ed was published before Sunday night’s U.S. Senate vote on a deal to reopen the government.
