This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Monday November 10, 2025.

As reported by  CenterSquare.com, U.S. senators finally broke the government funding impasse Sunday night, voting 60-40 to advance a bill ending the government shutdown.

This development does not mean that everything will open up today.  There are still a multitude of procedural hurdles – including having to merge the bill with the House resolution – that will take some more time to work out.  However, unless some far right wing Republicans break from their party in the House, the end to this shutdown is in sight.

The Democrats in return have been promised a separate vote by the end of December regarding extending the Obamacare Premium Tax Credit.  The vote will not pass, but they will get it.  They also received some promises like back pay and hiring back furloughed workers – which was probably all going to happen anyway.   In effect, thanks to some proper minded Democrats who realized their hardline counterparts are indeed being counter-productive, we finally have a path forward to opening the government.

We cannot overlook the fact, however, that this shutdown demonstrated once again how bloated and invasive government has become.  Why are close to 42 million Americans – or roughly 12% of our population receiving food assistance?  Why does the US government employ nearly 3 million civilians – or just shy of 1% of the entire US population?  That number does not include military members.  Why do we continue to look to government when it very rarely solves any thing and very often creates solutions that are expensive and impractical and often results in merely creating more dependence on government.

Maybe we should start thinking about solving those problems too.

For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample.  Thanks for listening.