Leader Schumer Leads Another Capitulation to Trump
It is my distinct recollection that on Wednesday afternoon, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer defiantly announced he would be voting no on a Republican-written continuing resolution (CR) to continue federal funding for another 6 months. Meaning he was ready to see a government shut-down wholly provoked by MAGA.
“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR,” Schumer said during a Senate floor speech. He, instead offered an “alternative” cr for 30 days that would forego all cuts and leave a month for negotiations.
“We should vote on that,” Schumer said. “I hope — I hope — our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday.”
Haha.
That was yesterday. Today, he said he changed his mind and would be voting yes with the Republicans and that in turn gives the green light to other Democrats to follow suit and allow the MAGA bill to pass, avoiding a government shutdown that would take place midnight Friday.
The Republicans simply don’t have the 60 votes they need for passage and they need a minimum of 8 Democrats to bail them out. Schumer is now busy starting to carry the water, saving Trump and MAGA from owning their own self--provoked shutdown.
This is a moment of maximum Democratic leverage that they will not have again until the midterms and that is not a lock. It is a tragic, stupid and rather repugnant move.
We have to dip a bit into the weeds to fully comprehend the scale of this intentional fumble by Schumer and likely many other Democrats,
Last Tuesday the House narrowly passed its own funding bill that was strictly partisan. The bill increases Pentagon funding as it will for Trump’s failing mass deportation program.
But it also includes $13b in budget cuts for spending on social program including that includes disaster relief for California and a slash in funding for the National Instutute for Health. Other cuts will remove 57% of the funding for DOD research on cancer, kidney disease, and prostate cancer. Another $20 billion cut is targeted at the IRS which will cause a further fall in tax monies that could easily cost more than the $20b initial cut. While it does not place reductions ion medicare and medicaid, it will leave several other safety nets vulnerable, making life for the bottom half of the population ever more difficult. No surprise, it includes no cuts for the chainsaw DOGE machine.
Now Schumer and, privately, other Democrats say they will go along with the Republicans because a shut down could give Trump the power to decide what parts of the government stay open and which ones would not. They argue this would give the The Don too much power to dismantle the government as if anything so far has really stopped him. It’s a weak tea argument.
Schumer today defended his switch saying:
“There are no winners in a government shutdown,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.”
“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” he added. “I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.”
If Chuck can change his mind, so can I. This is not weak tea. It’s a crock of Shinola.
It is true that, either way, Trump retains power to cut whatever he wants, What’s not true is if that in the case of a shutdown there would indeed be a loser — Donald Trump and MAGA,
MAGA controls the White House and majorities in both houses of congress. A shutdown would be THEIR problem. Of course Trump would blame the Democrats for the shutdown, That’s automatic. But you’d have to be a pea brain to not understand that the real responsibility would fall on the recklessness and hubris of the Republicans in congress and the babbling idiot in the White House
Also, a shut down would put enormous pressure on Trump to negotiate a settlement as many GOP House and even Senate reps whose particular districts and states wold be most hard hit and would have to pacify their roiled constituents. It would create a situation where, for once, the Democrats would hold the cards and Trumo & Co, would be the supplicants.
Oh my, we certainly would not want Trump to be so humiliated, would we?
The final vote won’t take place until sometime tomorrow. But what looked like a certain defeat for Trump now looks like a real possibility for victory.
The Democrats will ultimately not get blamed for a shutdown that didn’t happen. And crossing over the line to bail out Trump will win them nothing except six more months of the bigly and beautiful status quo,
One parting thought. I have long said the Democrats are not coming to save us and I have always been happy to stay our of the muck of Democratic infighting. It’s not my party, thank heavens. If anything, let this move by Senate Democrats remind you that we can save ourselves and spending energy and political capital by worrying about the Democratic leadership is a political dead end. And after the vote is taken, and if the Senate bill passes, make sure to write down and memorize the name of the Democrat crossovers as they will now officially be enabler of Trump’s rise to autocracy.
Take it away, Chuck!
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