Senate Republicans keep talking tough but keep doing nothing.
Americans are watching their government stay shut down while their bills keep coming due.
And Fox News host Laura Ingraham just put one Republican senator on the spot in a way that had the whole country paying attention.
Ingraham Tells the Senate to Wake Up or Get Wiped Out
The federal government has been shut down since October 1, after the Senate failed to pass a funding bill before the end of September. Republicans control the chamber 53 to 47, but Senate rules require 60 votes to break a filibuster and move legislation forward. Democrats have used that leverage to demand Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies set to expire at year’s end. Republicans have refused.
President Donald Trump has been pushing Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster entirely, and Laura Ingraham is firmly in his corner on this one.
On a recent episode of The Ingraham Angle, Ingraham sat down with U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) and did not waste a second on pleasantries. She went straight at the filibuster question, pressing Marshall on whether he would commit to helping end a procedural rule she says establishment Republicans are clinging to like a life raft.
“Senator, Republicans — especially the more establishment Republicans — are very, very wedded to this idea of holding onto the filibuster with a death grip,” Ingraham told Marshall, warning that Democrats would eliminate the rule themselves the moment they got back into power.
Then she asked the question that cut through all the Senate posturing: “Do you believe, given what this country and our people are facing, that it is time for the Republican Party to ditch the filibuster and start doing things for the American people?”
Marshall Moves Toward the Line But Won’t Cross It
Marshall gave Ingraham more than she might have expected from a Kansas Republican. He called Chuck Schumer’s offer to reopen the government a flat-out “non-starter,” explaining that Schumer’s deal would hand “$25 billion to criminals every year and $35 billion to insurance companies every year” to prop up Obamacare. That’s not a deal. That’s a ransom note.
And on the filibuster itself, Marshall said something notable. “Laura, every day that this shutdown goes on, the more I’m convinced we need to end the filibuster,” he told her. He pointed out that the same Democrats some of his Republican colleagues are counting on to protect the filibuster are the very same Democrats refusing to cross the aisle and fund the government. He also noted that just two years ago, every Democrat senator still serving today voted to end the filibuster themselves.
But when Ingraham pressed him for a firm commitment — “Tonight, will you commit to moving with your other senators toward ending the filibuster, Senator?” — Marshall pulled back. “Well, Laura, I’m never gonna make a decision like that right now,” he said. “This is bigger than buying a house. I would never buy a house without making a decision, sleeping on it the next night.”
That’s not the answer Ingraham was looking for. And it’s not the answer working Americans deserve either.
The Clock Is Ticking, and Ingraham Knows It
“The country is hurting,” Ingraham said flatly. “They want things done. You can’t ride on the ‘big beautiful bill’ into the midterms.”
Then she dropped the hammer: “Y’all gonna get wiped out. I’m telling you. The president sees it. He knows it.”
She’s not wrong. Trump’s sweeping domestic legislation, which he signed in July, was a genuine achievement. But you can’t campaign on yesterday’s win when people are watching the government stay closed while Washington plays procedural games. Voters have a short memory for accomplishments and a long one for gridlock.
Ingraham also turned her frustration toward Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who told her the night before that he agreed with her and the president that Democrats would eventually kill the filibuster themselves — but still wouldn’t commit to ending it first. “I can’t square that position,” she said. “The country is hurting; they want things done.”
Kennedy’s logic is not crazy on its face. There’s a real argument that Republicans who nuke the filibuster today hand Democrats a loaded weapon when the pendulum swings back. But the flaw in that thinking is assuming the Democrats need Republicans to set the precedent. They don’t. They’ve already tried. And the only thing that stopped them last time was Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, both of whom are gone.
What This Really Means for 2026
The midterms are coming faster than Senate Republicans seem to realize. History is not kind to the party in power during a government shutdown, and the optics of a closed federal government while ordinary Americans struggle financially don’t get better with time.
Trump signed the Big Beautiful Bill. That’s real. But voters who are watching their federal services grind to a halt, and their paychecks stay the same, aren’t going to grade Republicans on a curve because of what happened four months ago.
Ingraham has been one of the most consistent voices pushing the Republican Senate to act rather than deliberate. She’s been warning about this for weeks. The filibuster fight isn’t just a procedural squabble — it’s a test of whether the Republican majority can actually govern or whether it just holds a title.
And right now, Senate Republicans are failing that test, and they are failing President Trump
Marshall and Kennedy are not bad senators. But the slow-walking, the hedging, the “I need to sleep on it” answers — those don’t cut it when the government is shut and real people are feeling real pain. Trump sees it. Ingraham sees it. And come election night in 2026, voters will make sure Senate Republicans see it too.
But there’s still time to get this right. The question is whether Senate Republicans have the stomach to do what the moment requires before the clock runs out on them entirely.
Sources: Mediaite, Senator Roger Marshall press release (marshall.senate.gov), Yahoo News, The Daily Beast, Breitbart News