Enough Democratic Senators just blew it. Totally.
Let me explain why I think that.
I am very much aware that this “cave” will cost support, possibly even depressing turnout sufficiently to cost the forthcoming election that will decide control of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. But that is NOT why I am writing this
Consider the following:
1) House Republicans passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year with no Democratic input. That’s bad enough, but then
2) The House adjourned and went home depriving the Senate and Senators of the right to express what they wanted — if they did not accept the House bill as it was, the government would have been forced to shut down at least for the weekend, and probably until sometime next week Wednesday or later. That is NOT how legislating is supposed to be done. Both chambers are supposed to have a chance to weigh in on ALL substantial legislation, going to conference committee if there are disagreements. The Senate accepting this “our way or you shut down the government” is offensive to the Senate, and Schumer and the Dems never made that point forcefully, if at all.
3) Schumer telegraphing tthis yesterday and having an op ed published this morning, wioth the clear implication that he had the 8 votes necessary to achieve cloture had another effect — look at what happened on Wall Street today, with markets up significantly, I think in large part because investors decided that with no shut down there would be no further damage to the economy as a result.
4) These Dems were ignoring the fact that Trump-Vought-Musk were already making moves to impound the (very insufficient) funds included in the CR, so you were still going to have a continuing partial shut down, one that would require constant litigation the results of which Trump would probably ignore if the decisions go against him.
5) I think the grievance filled rant Trump did at DOJ this afternoon was in large part fueled by his belief that he could now push things even further because the Dem Senators just gave up their last chance to stop his ramp destruction and dismantling of our republic.
I know Schumer thinks he will be able to get through the Senate a bi-partisan bill to fix at least some of what was damaged in the CR, but do you really think it will pass the House? I don’t think it will even be brought up for a vote unless by a discharge petition, because Johnson is totally in the tank for Trump.
As for some of other Senators voting with Schumer on this — Durbin is probably not running again, Peters is not running again. I know Durban & Schatz are both in leadership & probably did not want to break with Schumer, but that is no excuse. King is absolutely bullet-proof in ME. If Ossoff, the most endangered Dem Senator, could vote against cloture, no one else has an excuse.
And excuse me, since he is now my Senator, but Fetterman is now moving beyond being just a disappointment into something far more foul, but I will for now bite my tongue on what I am inclined to say.
I have refrained from posting for a while, but yesterday and today were simply too much for me to continue to remain silent.
