Another USA government shutdown has started with the prospect (at the minimum) of lay-offs – 750,000 federal employees expected to be placed on enforced leave, with pay withheld until they return to work, essential workers like military and border agents may be forced to work without pay, parks will be closed, rubbish pile up and there is likely to be disruption at airports.
Though Trump has posted online that Republicans should use it to “clear out dead wood” and see which “Democrat Agencies” to cut with the possibility of permanent job losses. In a shutdown, the White House and Office of Management and Budget have full control over which arms of the executive branch will stay running
J.D. Vance is spouting nonsense about Democrats holding out about funding for illegal aliens when US law bars undocumented immigrants from receiving the health care benefits and the Democrats have not called for changes to that.
Democrats are motivated by grassroots anger over expiring healthcare subsidies. Though Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post writes this is less about Obamacare and more about the American Rescue Plan, brought in as a temporary covid emergency plan, which he argues was inflationary and should not continue. At the time evidently former Clinton treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers cautioned against it because it would “set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.” And Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said he didn’t know of “any economist that was recommending something [that] size.” [I am not familiar enough with the detail to know what weight to put on any of the arguments.]
The last shut-down under the first Trump administration lasted a record 34 days, starting 20 January 2018.
There is not much to add to previous thoughts on the USA and Inauguration charts. The USA 4 July 1776 chart has the Solar Arc Saturn exactly square Neptune at the moment for high uncertainty and paralysis with the Solar Arc Sun square the Mars for a collision-type event in six months and SA Sun in a lacklustre discouraging opposition to Neptune exact by mid 2026 but trailing on in effect to early 2027. That will see the end of this two year plus process of a disruptive existential crisis starting in early 2025 as the USA Sun square Saturn by Solar Arc collided with the USA Mars square Neptune.
Not that the shutdown will last that long since the Democrats are likely to cave but the high anxiety will roll on.
The USA Federal Reserve. 16 November 1914 9am is not in a good phase with tr Neptune (Saturn) square its Saturn Pluto in Cancer this year till January 2027; a lacklustre, disappointed Solar Arc Neptune conjunct Sun exact in six months; and a high-insecurity tr Uranus square Mars from June 2026 to April 2027. So economic pressures will mount.
The 2025 Trump Inauguration chart with its afflicted Moon in the 6th house of health has been pressured as the Progressed Moon squared Mars recently and then moves on to square the Inauguration Pluto by March 2026 – so again a long, heated wrangle with deadlock along the way which will extend in effect after.
Trump’s personal chart, birth time being accurate, does have his Solar Arc Midheaven conjunct his Pluto exactly now and lingering on for months ahead at a time he does not seem to be winning too many battles – Putin, Netanyahu, his boy Milei on the skids, Epstein lurking in the shadows etc etc. He has tr Pluto opposing his Saturn/Pluto midpoint now till early December which suggests tough conditions and an uphill struggle to make progress. Plus November 9th to early December and again in April 2026 tr Uranus square his Saturn/Neptune midpoint hinting at stretched nerves, irritability and even illness brought on by underlying panic. This last influence at the same time as tr Uranus squares his Ascendant for an image jolt. Plus, of course, his Solar Arc Neptune continuing to wend its way over his Moon and opposition his Sun to late 2026 and beyond into early 2027 which won’t improve his clarity of thought or his energy.
None of this helps to put a date on the end of the shutdown but it is part and parcel of an extended period of muddle and mayhem in the USA.
Just for context, Marc Thiessen, writing in the Washington Post, almost always trumpets the Republican line. Lawrence Summers, former Harvard president and Secretary of the Treasury under Clinton, isn’t exactly viewed as any sort of progressive and probably skews more conservative in recent years.
In following the rhetoric over the shutdown, the Democrats’ position does focus more on the original Obamacare subsidies rather than the enhanced Covid-era subsidies and on the Republicans’ decimation of the US healthcare system. Most rural hospitals are heavily reliant on income and support from Medicaid, which Republicans have radically slashed.
Even though the worst Medicaid cuts don’t take effect until after the 2026 mid-term elections, by deliberate calculation to obscure their impact, many more already-struggling rural hospitals have announced plans to close. Rural areas in recent years have lost hospitals at a record rate, leaving vast rural areas virtual healthcare deserts. And many rural areas with open hospitals have lost their maternity wards, especially in red states with especially restrictive abortion laws. Idaho in particular has very few OB/GYNS still practicing in the state because of their extreme abortion laws, barring miscarriage treatment.
Thanks Nicole, I did wonder about him writing for the WPo when he was also a Fox contributor.
You’re very welcome. Thiessen hasn’t moved much even with Trump’s bizarre economic “policy.”
Following Trump’s recent performance in front of the military top brass in the US, a number of commentators and politicians once again raised the question of Trump’s health; not least his mental state. Perhaps that is what Trump’s personal chart is beginning to flag up.
Pluto is hovering on the cusp of his 6th house of physical health and thence going on for many years which can be a time when problems surface. Plus a bucketload of Neptune which will fog his brain.
He has not been seen in person since Tuesday’s military address, though his social media accounts have been active. Lots of speculation on what is happening behind the scenes.
Looking at Trump’s chart, he also has Jupiter currently transiting his 12th house and South Node in his first house, usually it is a period of losses. That is when one is more likely to lose even legal cases, it will be interesting to see how the Supreme Court will rule on his liberation tariffs in November, astrologically it is more likely that he will loose since they were implemented under mercury retrograde. Unless if the corrupt Supreme Court rules in his favor since they are politically captured, they make political rulings than legal rulings this days. In general there is a shift in the US as well as in Trump’s grab of power. Government shutdown makes him look weak. November does not look good for him at all.
Marjorie, what is your thoughts about Trump using the shutdown to avoid the Eipstein vote? If I recall, the recent special election in Arizona resulted in a Democrat winning, and she would provide the vote needed to force the House to vote on providing the Eipstein files to be released. As long as Trump continues this shutdown, he controls the narrative.
I have read on other sites that the return of Jupiter into Leo starting June 30, 2026 may be when the information about Eipstein starts coming out. Technically, the timing makes sense. It is the summer before the midterms, after candidates are picked and with enough time for scandal to take effect. Also, if Democrats win at midterms, Trump would face opposition at best and possible impeachment at worse. What are your thoughts?
The Federal Reserve chart is particularly interesting. Tr. Uranus in Gemini square Mars goes into effect right as a new Fed chair will be installed that’s controlled by Trump. That’s likely suggestive of a real challenge to its political independence. It’s maneuvers to loosen monetary policy will also likely backfire badly on an economy already reeling from inflationary pressures. By the time we reach tr. Saturn in Taurus square Pluto in Aquarius in 2028, the economy will likely be deep in the doldrums.
2028 sounds like an echo of 2008’s financial crisis and resulting Great Recession but with the country over $40 trillion in debt the Federal Reserve will have more limited options to save the economy than it did in 2008.
I watched a video by the Scottish-American historian Niall Ferguson recently where he said that for the first time ever, the US will spend more on interest payments towards the federal debt than on its defence. He went on to share that when a great power comes to spend more on the federal debt than on defence, that it’s a mark of their final decline. He pointed to the Dutch Republic, the Habsburg Empire, Spain, and the British Empire – all former great powers that apparently collapsed after crossing that same threshold.
Early in the new year, transiting Saturn in Aries will square America’s Venus-Jupiter CJ, and by 2027, it will oppose their natal Saturn and square their Sun.
Niall Ferguson also called the integration of the Chinese and US economies Chimerica. The disintegration of that illusion brings dictatorship in the US, according to a great article in Foreign Affairs out today.
I find it interesting how different it would work out in a Westminster style parliamentary system, where inability to get a budget through would automatically lead to ouster of the government.
“Supply”, the ability of the government to raise taxes in order to spend them on public services, and which can only be done through Parliament, is central to the Westminster system and inability to provide supply would lead to either the voluntary resignation or involuntary dismissal of the government by a neutral head of state, who is obliged to ensure that there is a government who can get supply through Parliament.
I hope that most of us in the USA and all countries that we affect will survive this. I know all will not as the government has no interest in saving lives. It is shocking every single day. Thanks for your insights.
I would be grateful for measured comments. Facts for context are welcome. Personal opinions not so much.