Senate Dems Better Not Do The Kabuki Thing On Trump's Blank Check
Just say Noh, and SHUT IT DOWN.
As seemed likely, House Republicans passed a spending bill Tuesday to keep the government open until the fiscal year ends at the end of September. Donald Trump already explained to GOP deficit hawks they need not worry about the budget’s spending totals, since he has no intention of actually sticking to whatever they pass, and will unconstitutionally embargo any spending he wants to. Only one Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted against it, and only one Democrat, Maine’s Jared Golden, gets an angry stink-eye from us for voting for it.
Just to make it harder for any compromises to pass in the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson immediately recessed the House until March 24. It’s not like House Republicans have been playing any role in governing anyway, preferring to leave that to Mad King Donald and his ketamine jester.
The continuing resolution, or CR as your policy wonks like to say, then went to the Senate, where it doesn’t have enough Democratic support to get past a filibuster. Last night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) pointed out that Democrats have already introduced a one-month funding bill that would give the Senate time to craft a more responsible budget that doesn’t just surrender Congress’s power of the purse to Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
“Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” he said. “I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday.”
Now, that all sounds like a tough stance against the Republicans’ funding-suggestion bill, but Senate Dems are actually more divided than united on what to do: They all hate the Republican bill, which does nothing to rein in Trump’s ongoing coup against the Constitution, but they also worry that allowing the government to shut down would leave Trump and Musk doing all the damage they are now, but adding to it the pain that a shutdown would inflict on government workers and their families — especially those on contracted jobs, who won’t get back pay after a shutdown ends.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) summed it up thusly:
“There are really only two options. One is to vote for a pretty bad C.R., or the other is to vote for a potentially even worse shutdown. It is a very tough choice.”
Some Democrats are suggesting that it would be enough to just have bipartisan input on the bill by allowing eight Democrats to support cloture — voting to bring the bill to debate on the floor — in exchange for the chance to offer amendments and a vote on the 30-day clean CR. Of course, if they do that, Republicans would almost certainly defeat all the amendments with a simple majority, and then pass the House bill with a simple majority too. That’s what Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia appeared to be willing to accept; he told reporters after a Democratic meeting yesterday, “Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that’s what we are insisting on.”
In that scenario, Democrats would get their opposition on the record before Republicans pass the bill and let Trump run roughshod over the Constitution and keep Congress in session so Republicans can pass their reconciliation bill that would hand out $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to the rich and corporations while slashing social programs, basic government services, and almost certainly Medicaid and possibly Medicare to offset the costs.
Not voting for cloture would kill the bill and give Republicans the choice of passing the 30-day clean CR, or letting the government shut down. So far, Republicans insist they would never even consider it, so they’d let the government shut down and blame Democrats. If the Senate did pass the clean CR, or even an amended version of the House bill, House Republicans would need to return to Washington to vote on it tomorrow to keep the government from closing down just after the clock rolls into Saturday morning.
Here’s a late-breaking bit of hope, too: Just this morning Sen Mark Warner (D-Virginia), who had been reported as a possible vote for cloture, posted a Bluesky message promising that he’s not going to do any such thing: “NO on cloture. NO on the CR. We’re fighting this bad bill that cuts Americans a terrible deal with everything we’ve got.” [Kvetching about making a video while driving removed thanks to an alert Wonkette operative who observed that cars and traffic signs seen outside are not reversed, so Warner is a passenger. Apologies to the senator, and for the error.]
And yes, a shutdown would mean pain for federal workers, who would be furloughed or would have to work without pay; contract workers would most likely just lose their jobs and would not be eligible for back pay. But in a letter to members of the Senate, the leader of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett B. Kelley (who spells it right) nonetheless urges senators to vote against the House’s CR, arguing that
With thousands of federal workers either fired, placed on administrative leave, or at immediate risk of losing their jobs, AFGE members have concluded that a widespread government shutdown has been underway since January 20 and will continue to spread whether senators vote yes or no on H.R. 1968. Under the current CR, federal workers are being treated no better than they will be if government funding ceases Friday night.
Under a shutdown, Kelley suggests, there would at least be the prospect that “normal” shutdown procedures would hold, and that furloughed workers could be eligible for back pay. But passing the CR could actually be worse, he explains:
Yes, it is true that workers who have not yet been fired are at least drawing a paycheck — for now. But if H.R. 1968 becomes law — a measure that ignores the administration's brazen refusal to carry out duly enacted laws of Congress and further erodes Congress's power of the purse — AFGE knows that DOGE will dramatically expand its terminations of federal workers and double down on its campaign to make federal agencies fail because there will be nothing left to stop the Administration for the balance of Fiscal Year 2025, if ever.
With a shutdown, or the adoption of the 30-day clean CR, unlikely though that may be, there’s the chance of forcing an end to the criminality. In that sense, passing the House bill would be the worse capitulation.
Frankly, we say it’s time to stand firm and refuse to cooperate with the fascists who are already shutting down more and more of the government. No cloture, no House bill, and if Republicans won’t take up the 30-day CR, they’re the ones shutting down the government, as usual, even if Fox News is testing out the phrase “Schumer Shutdown” in advance, apparently because compared to the damage Trump wants to inflict on America, alliteration is the most powerful political tool known to humanity.
If Chuck Schumer directs Democrats to vote for cloture, the game is over, and so is his time as Senate Democratic Leader.
[NBC News / NBC News / NYT / TPM]
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When you get a dad joke in the sub-hed, you know it's gonna be a Dok post. Now you noh.
I wish to apologize for leaving out other traditional Japanese dramatic forms, but whenever I think of Bunraku I just get distracted thinking of bunnies in period Edo costumes being performed by handlers in all black. So cute!