Our good friends on the left are doing everything that they can to express their disgust, and try to score political points with far-left voters, over the eight Senate Democrats who agreed to end the filibuster and allow the continuing resolution to reopen the government to be passed. Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) is trying to tell us that he’d have gotten a better deal to reopen the government, because he finally got the state budget passed, a mere 135 days late. 🙂

Gov. Josh Shapiro says national Democrats folded in the federal shutdown, while he stayed ‘at the table’ for Pa.’s late budget deal

As Shapiro portrays the outcome of Pennsylvania’s 2025 state budget as an across-the-board victory, the path to get there was harder, messier, and longer than anyone in Harrisburg would have liked.

by Julia Terruso and Gillian McGoldrick | Tuesday, November 18, 2025 | 5:00 AM EST | Updated: 10:08 AM EST

The turning point in Pennsylvania’s budget impasse, by Gov. Josh Shapiro’s telling, came just before Halloween, when he and leaders in Harrisburg gathered in his stately, wood-paneled office to meet twice daily to hash out a deal to end the bitter, monthslong stalemate.

The long grind eventually led to compromises 135 days in, and a deal Shapiro said he thinks is far better than what national Democrats, hoping to extend healthcare subsidies, got in Washington at the end of the federal shutdown.

“Sometimes you’ve got to show that you’re willing to stay at the table and fight and bring people together in order to deliver,” Shapiro told The Inquirer in an interview Friday, touting the state budget agreement finally signed that week.

“I think it’s a stark contrast, frankly, with what happened in D.C., where they didn’t stay at the table, they didn’t fight, and they got nothing,” he said.

Let’s tell the truth here: the Democrats in Washington weren’t “at the table” because Republicans wouldn’t negotiate with them, and that’s because Republicans had most of the power. Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House in Washington, while they control only the Senate in the Keystone State.

As Shapiro portrays the outcome of Pennsylvania’s 2025 state budget as an across-the-board victory, the path to get there was harder and messier than he would have liked: a nearly five-month slog that strained his dealmaker image and forced concessions to get the deal across the line — including no new money for mass transit. The absence of a new funding stream in the budget marked a final blow in the saga to Southeastern Pennsylvania commuters who rely on SEPTA — and who are likely to be reminded of the beleaguered agency’s funding woes as delays, staffing issues, and needed repairs persist.

Critics are quick to note it took the self-proclaimed dealmaker so long to get a deal. Counties, school districts, and nonprofits struggled through four months without state payments while officials remained at loggerheads. Pennsylvania was the last state in the nation to pass a spending plan for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

The failure of the budget to include new money for SEPTA is the big bugaboo for Philadelphia-area Democrats. They certainly don’t like the apparently horrible idea of raising fares to have the people who use SEPTA pay more of SEPTA’s expenses.

At the federal level, all the Democrats had was the power to keep the Senate from voting on the Continuing Resolution via the filibuster . . . and the Republicans who control the Senate could have used the so-called “nuclear option” to end the filibuster rule, something the President urged them to do.

But things were worse for the Democrats at the federal level than Republicans in Pennsylvania. Sure, many “counties, school districts, and non-profits struggled,” but at the federal level the 42 million SNAP recipients were having to go without their ‘food stamps,’ their EBT cards being refilled. How much longer could the Democrats have held out?

We have previously reported on how Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch and the newspaper’s Editorial Board were just spittle-flecking mad that the Democrats ended the filibuster, and now the Working Families Party — which is a complete misnomer, since so much of their support comes from non working families and welfare recipients — have decided that they are “committed to recruiting and supporting a primary challenge to him in 2028.”

Earlier this year, Fetterman was the first Senate Democrat to support the Laken Riley Act, a Republican immigration bill that requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain and take into custody individuals who have been charged with theft-related offenses, even without a conviction. Critics of the law say it severely cracks down on due process for immigrants.

Fetterman was the sole Senate Democrat to vote to confirm Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was one of Trump’s attorneys when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

And he has been the Senate’s most outspoken defender of Israel during its war in Gaza, sponsoring a resolution with Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) against antisemitism and appearing for the first time since his fall at an event hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington on Monday.

He also received recognition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called him the country’s “best friend” and gifted him a silver pager inspired by Israel’s attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon that exploded pagers.

“He has repeatedly shown disregard for the rights of Palestinians,” the Working Families Party release said. “Refusing to support a two-state solution and breaking with the rest of the Democratic caucus on Israel’s illegal annexation of the West Bank.”

Translation: Senator Fetterman does not hate Jooooos enough.

You know who else do not “support a two-state solution” for the ‘Palestinians’? The ‘Palestinians’ themselves, along with their fellow travelers who chant “From the River To the Sea” in support of them.

The Pennsylvania (Non)Working Families Party hates things like law enforcement, rejoicing over the re-election of Philadelphia’s George Soros-sponsored, criminal-loving and police hating District Attorney Larry Krasner, and of course they support the blood-thirsty ‘Palestinians’. Mr Fetterman is a surprisingly good Senator, a Democrat to be sure, but a moderate Democrat rather than a wild-eyed leftist.

So, apparently Senator Fetterman will have a challenger from the far-left in the 2028 primary, assuming that he even runs for re-election; he’s not in the best of health, despite being only 56 years old.