An unresolved budget dispute forced a government shutdown at midnight last night for the first time in nearly seven years. Around 800,000 employees will be on unpaid leave; essential workers like air traffic controllers will still work but not be paid.

The dispute highlights America’s inability to bring its bloated budget under control. Even modest efforts to trim spending have created an impasse:

• Democrats wanted to extend health insurance subsidies due to expire this year. Republicans wanted to deal with them separately.
• Democrats opposed Medicaid cuts in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” When Republicans wouldn’t cooperate, Democrats refused to pass a stopgap spending bill that would have kept the government running until November 21.

President Trump isn’t too worried. “A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” he said, saying he would use it to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things” and that he’d be “laying off a lot of people.”

In 2011, during a previous shutdown fight, Joel Hilliker noted that despite the budget chaos,

the basic assumption that it is the government’s duty to provide entitlements like welfare, retirement benefits, health care and an endless list of other benefits remains completely unshaken. No matter how broken the system is—no matter how broke the state and federal governments are—Americans will continue to vociferously demand (and vote for politicians who promise to provide) the generous provision of the government. …

The government gravy train simply will not keep rolling forever. Soon, despite political promises to the contrary, the entitlements will stop. And to a nation deeply addicted to them, you can count on there being some violent withdrawal symptoms.

The situation calls to mind a warning God gave to the ancient nation of Israel, recorded in 1 Samuel 8. He governed the people directly, with a comparatively light touch, through a small collection of human leaders. While the people obeyed God, He blessed them for it. But when they disobeyed, curses began to befall them, and they felt they would be better off with a human king and a system of government more like the nations around them had.

If that’s what you want—fine, God responded. But realize that that king’s government is bound to expand. He will introduce burdensome taxes. He will create bureaucratic bloat. His rulership will grow increasingly oppressive. This biblical passage provides extraordinary insight into the most common pitfall of man’s government: its tendency to amass power, property and wealth—wealth that should remain in the hands of the citizens.

President Trump is trying to cut back some parts of the government—but he’s still nowhere close to balancing the budget; his “big, beautiful bill” creates even more debt. A much bigger, more radical change to America’s government is necessary to avoid disaster. Read more in Mr. Hilliker’s article “Would a Better Budget Solve America’s Problems?”