For the 14th time, Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a clean “continuing resolution” (CR) that would keep the government funded at the Biden-era spending levels they themselves re-approved earlier this year. Give them points for obstinacy if nothing else. But that obstinacy is beginning to exact a price, and the Democratic base is feeling the impacts the most.

On Monday, America’s largest federal workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), publicly pleaded for Congress to pass a clean CR — the plan Republicans proposed all the way back in September — after federal employees missed their first full paycheck. “That is about as a reliable of a Democrat contingency as you can possible have,” observed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).

“I would think, with the nation’s largest federal employee union calling for passage of the clean CR — I mean, these are Democratic-leaning voters, this is part of their base — I would think the Democrats would be listening,” assessed FRC President Tony Perkins.

But, from within the political box canyon of their own making, Senate Democrats appear deaf to the stifled cries of their starving constituents. “They seem more interested right now in what MoveOn.org and Indivisible and No Kings and all these crazy left-wing groups have to say,” Thune thought. “They’re just flat scared of them.”

But the Democrats’ headaches are only just beginning. On Saturday, November 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will run out of money to cover SNAP benefits for more than 40 million Americans, most of whom are far less well-off than federal employees.

“When the snap benefits fail to be loaded onto the cards on Saturday morning, that’s going to be a real problem,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Tuesday on “Washington Watch.” “I think the Democrats realize it’s going to be a real problem for them, that they are going to have to explain why they voted 13 times to keep the government closed and to keep SNAP benefits away from over 40 million Americans.”

“That’s not even to talk about … the problems with the air traffic controllers, the problems with military not getting their pay,” Harris added. The pain of the shutdown continues to pile up.

But as the potential for a missed SNAP disbursement looms ever closer, Washington insiders report that bipartisan discussions about ending the shutdown have “picked up,” as Leader Thune put it. “Deadlines have a way of doing that.”

Yes, it appears that the world’s foremost deliberative body is currently behaving like a not-so-responsible college freshman, chugging his third energy drink during an all-night paper-writing binge.

As more and more Democratic constituencies feel the shutdown pinch, Democratic legislators have sought to take the edge off by prescribing topic painkillers. Politico reports that even Democrats as extreme as Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would support narrow bills (called “rifle shots”) to relieve the plight of this or that constituency.

But their compassion arrived too late to catch the bus. Last Thursday, Senate Republicans offered Democrats a chance to at least make sure U.S. military servicemembers received their paychecks — but Democrats voted it down. After the White House secured funds to pay the troops through an anonymous private donor, Senate Democrats’ renewed overtures for pinpoint relief are too little, too late.

Part of the calculation is strategic. If Democrats succeed in creating a legislative painkiller, they might become so addicted that they never reopen the government. “They got a few people who are particularly vulnerable who would love to vote on a little, rifle-shot bill, but not reopen the government,” said Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas). “I think maybe it might be a mistake to give them an out.”

Leader Thune would prefer to solve the government shutdown in the simplest and most responsible way: funding the entire government. It only takes five Democrats, and he is willing to wait. “Hopefully, a handful of Democrats come to their senses by the end of the week,” said Harris.

Besides Democratic obstinacy, the other major storyline of this shutdown is Republican unity. “This is really the first time I can recall, in my over two decades here, that the Republicans have held the line,” remarked Perkins, “that they’ve not caved, they’ve not waved a white flag, and they’ve taken a stand for what the American [voters] gave them the authority to do, and that is stand for fiscal sanity.”

“The bottom line is we can’t afford new spending, and we just have to pass the clean CR,” Harris responded. As the price for their cooperation to fund the government for six weeks (four of which have already passed), Democrats demand that Republicans approve $1.5 billion in health care spending by voting to make permanent COVID-era Obamacare subsidies that Democrats passed without bipartisan support and set to expire this year.

Unsurprisingly, Harris added, “We’re happy that Mike Johnson is holding the line, [that] John Thune over in the Senate is holding the line.”

However, all but three Senate Democrats have also stuck by their unreasonable demands, and they appear set to do so until every other option has been exhausted.

This week, Democrats employed one of their favorite strategies for making the federal government do things Congress has not authorized: filing a lawsuit before an activist judge. Fully 25 states plus the District of Columbia have sued the Trump administration to force it to continue funding the SNAP program despite the government shutdown. The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration could cover the costs with contingency funds and tariff revenues, but the government contends those resources are also needed elsewhere.

The lawsuit is a shrewd play, since Democrats reason they have nothing to lose. And they have recent evidence that the strategy can work, after a San Francisco-based federal judge twiceblocked the Trump administration from using the shutdown to lay off federal workers.

But what Democrats stand to lose may be their most valuable resource of all: time. With a pending lawsuit, Senate Democrats may not view November 1 as a hard deadline for SNAP benefits, either causing the shutdown to drag on further or preparing them for a last-minute capitulation.

In the meantime, Republican leaders in Congress are already discussing what comes next. In two weeks, the length of the shutdown will surpass the length of the CR that Democrats refused to pass. Where do Republicans go from there? Hopefully, not into the Senate Democrats’ box canyon.