Senate Democrats this week said they'd let the Republican short-term spending bill pass, and so avoid a government shutdown as of Oct. 1, for the low, low price of . . . $1.5 trillion.

Yep, they demand that much added spending, which means $1.5 trillion in new federal debt over the next decade.

To add a single month of uninterupted federal operations, the GOP must agree to:

1) permanently extend Biden-era ObamaCare subsidies that now sunset Dec. 31, and

2) gut the health savings just passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and

3) unfreeze $5 billion in foreign aid that President Donald Trump recently stopped while Congress was on (yet another) vacation.

Republicans didn't bite, so Senate Dems this week used the filibuster to block the GOP's "stopgap" bill, setting up a game of chicken when Congress gets back to work at the very end of the month.

It's basically Vladimir Putin's approach to Ukraine talks: Surrender, then we can start negotiating.

The national debt already sits at a crippling $36.2 trillion -- 119.4% of GDP, a level not seen since World War II. We spend $1 trillion a year on interest alone.

And Dems propose a whole new round of generational theft.

The (arguably left-leaning) Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calls the Dem proposal a "non-starter" that worsens our "devastating fiscal situation." No kidding.

It's about protecting "vulnerable Americans," claims Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

What about the vulnerable future Americans who'd get stuck with the bill?

Democrats in Congress are plainly raring for a shutdown, by all accounts because their lefty base demands they "do something."

We guess blowing up Uncle Sam's already-dire finances counts as something.

Democrats' $1.5 trillion demand to keep the gov't open sets a new...