Following today’s government shutdown, Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy at the Cato Institute, offers analysis on why Democrats may have miscalculated.

Boccia argues shutdowns hand the President and OMB extra discretion—hardly a smart move for the party out of power. With only 27% of government operations actually affected — and Democrats’ healthcare demands being unrelated to government funding and facing no pressing deadline — the strategic logic of forcing a shutdown now remains unclear.

Her assessment, featured in the Washington Post and BBC News: “The problem with going into shutdown fights like this one is that nobody seems to ask, ‘And then what?’ So you’ve shut the government down. Great. You’ve thrown a temper tantrum. We all got to watch it. And now what?”

Boccia is available for interviews. Read her full analysis here.

If you’d like to speak with Boccia, please reach out to Madison: mmiller@​cato.​org.