To the editor:

Senate majority leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, keep iterating that the shutdown will be a Democrat shutdown. They both appear to have problems with math. I love math. One of the few places where there is one and only one correct answer. So let’s look at the math. In the House there are 435 voting members. Of those, 219 are Republicans, 213 Democrats, zero Independents and three vacancies. That’s a six-vote Republican margin, and speaker Johnson marshaled his caucus to avoid a shutdown. Now to the Senate. There are 100 voting members, a much smaller voting body with the makeup of 53 Republicans (the majority party) and the minority consisting of 45 Democrats and two Independents. That is a six-vote margin as well. But don’t forget the vice president; that’s another Republican vote, so that is actually seven votes (if you’re just putting Democrats in the equation and since they’re trying to pin the shutdown on Democrats, I will; it’s a nine-vote margin). With a larger vote margin in a smaller voting body, the majority leader’s insistence that this a Democrat shutdown just doesn’t add up. What it might indicate is an inability to do the job.

Paul Wharton,

Lawrence