Led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 10 members of the Senate Democratic caucus capitulated to Donald Trump on Friday afternoon and voted to end debate on a Republican budget bill that would legitimize Elon Musk's decimation of the federal government.
The bill, which the Republican-led House passed earlier this week, would make major cuts to the federal budget—including $1 billion to the city of Washington, D.C.—and would impose no restrictions or safeguards on Musk and Trump until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The Senate voted to advance the bill by a 62-38 margin, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to cut off debate and advance the measure to a final vote, when only a simple majority will be required. As New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez noted on Bluesky Thursday night, voting for cloture is tantamount to voting for the bill. The final bill passed later on Friday, 54-46.
Schumer sent House Democrats into a rage Thursday when he announced that he would support the funding bill only a day after insisting Republicans did not have the necessary votes. Republicans—from the House Judiciary Committee to former Donald Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows to Trump himself—crowed that Schumer had "caved" and given Trump exactly what he wanted.
Schumer's decision to voluntarily give up a rare opportunity to exercise leverage over Trump also infuriated an enormous swath of Democratic voters, who beseeched their senators not to surrender—to no avail. Semafor reporter Dave Weigel described the explosion of white-hot anger as the moment “[t]he Democrats' Tea Party was born.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the passage of the final bill.
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