By all accounts, Chuck Schumer’s decision to support the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown has opened a huge rift in the Democratic Party. I’m not sure I agree with Schumer’s reasoning, which he explains here.
First, a shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have wide-ranging authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff members with no promise they would ever be rehired.
The decisions about what is essential would, in practice, be largely up to the executive branch, with few left at agencies to check it.
Mr. Musk has reportedly said that he wants a shutdown and may already be planning how to use one to his advantage.
See also the dialogue between Schumer and Chris Hayes from last night.
I don’t think Chuck Schumer and whichever other senators may join him today grasp the size of the chasm they’re opening up. I get the sense the full level of it will only begin to dawn on them sometime next week. If I’m right that they don’t fully grasp it, why don’t they? Well, you generally don’t see things you’re heavily invested in not seeing. Washington and particularly the Capitol also remain in their own bubble of a sorts, despite the fact that in many key ways it is at the very center of the storm.
I’m sorry for the morbid analogy, but I think of those Chernobyl scenes with people who’ve already been irradiated by didn’t realize it yet. They think they’re fine. But they’re not. They’ll find out in a few days.
It’s not clear to me what all is in the CR, but it’s supposed to be good for the rest of fiscal year 2025. That is, until September 30. And the Senate is expected to vote on it this afternoon. The old CR expires at midnight tonight.
Update: The CR was passed in the Senate. Here Are the Senate Democrats Who Helped Republicans Avert a Shutdown. There is still grumbling this may yet cost Schumer his leadership position. I’ll believe that when I see it, but there’s no question there’s going to be a nasty falling out ahead for the Dems.
It struck me as a damned if you do, damned if you don't choice, the correct path forward was going to be unclear, because of this. I'm agreeing with AOC and especially Josh Marshall (sorry no linkee) who say the Dems blew the optics, the average people could've come away with the impression that the Dems at least put up a fight for the people and against Project 2025, but now they're soured on everybody.
I'm angry that AOC lost her bid earlier this year for an important committee position, to someone who's probably capable and liberal but in his 70s, and obviously stuck in the old ways, unable to step aside for fresh, energetic leadership.
Hakkim Jeffries strikes me as a general who can only fight one kind of war, and can can't adapt to changing realities.
"who say the Dems blew the optics"
I don't watch as much news as I used to but I would say they didn't really even have any "optics". I never really heard a cohesive message against the CR at all?
I'd be fine with Schumer stepping down as long as Durbin doesn't step in, he's more milquetoast that Chuck. I don't really disagree with Schumer's vote the problem is he never had a plan for something different. Apparently he didn't think Johnson could get the CR out of the House? That is some amateur bullshit. He's playing establishment politics while Stump and Eloon are unlawfully slashing programs/employees and hocking cars on the white house lawn. I say we need the fighter pilot astronot at the helm. It's definitely time for a change.
I agree with Moonbat – there may have been no good option. But if I'm about to be slain by the Prince of Darkness, my last act will be to defy him for his evil.
I'm convinced there's little that can be done to prevent the disaster unfolding. I also think neither Trump nor Musk will be able to spin the consequences to the satisfaction of voters. That the administration is asking for patience proves to me they know the vast majority of regular voters will be affected by the damage (or individual ruin.) Americans have little tolerance for pain – I predict serious hurt for all but the ultra-rich before elections in 2026. Democrats won't have a supermajority, so any significant relief from Congress will be killed in the Senate GOP. That will carry Democrats forward in 2027 with even more gains, possibly a trifecta. But tens of millions will be decades rebuilding their lives, And that's my most optimistic prediction.
Trump/Musk will fight with everything at their disposal, including the US Supreme Court. Some of the most illegal stuff will be sustained – not all of it. Trump will want all of it and I predict he will defy the USSC when a bid to shut down elections is not sustained by the High Court. That will be in 2026. IMO, the troops will revolt at defiance of the USSC – by "troops" I mean commissioned officers below, sometimes well below the Penaatgon-level appointees who have no respect for the Constitution.
That's the break-point. There's not a lot that Democrats in Congress can do as a body to slow the catastrophe but damn it to hell – they should at least LOOK like they are fighting it! It's going to come down to mass actions against the administration to provide "optics." Some of the optics will be blood in the streets. Previous dictators have been able to suppress those images – some outlets will tamp down on video of excessive force but it's gonna get out for the vast majority to see. A lot of low-info voters will be paying attention because they will be dealing with inflation, the loss of a job, access to medical care cut off, food insecurity – a ton of issues they were blissfully unaware of under Biden. They won't be the ones on the street (mostly) but they will be watching.
I think John Cole at Balloon-juice.com nailed it. It wasn't so much that Schumer was willing to support a CR, because the cost of the shutdown was feared to be too high. It was the oleaginous way he went about it, first assuming the House would fail, then switching when the actual pressure was on.
I know some are "damned if you do, damned if you don't, flip a coin," but, this is something I'll say over and over, if I live and post long enough. We lost the chance for a bloodless revolution in 2024. There will be blood – not "blood in the streets," I hope, but, people on Medicaid will be taken off, and they will die – that's blood. Social Security Disability folks will be cut off, and thereby lose Medicaid, and they, too, will die.
Right now, while everyone is shocked and angry at the pain and cruelty, is the time to let the Republicans fail to stanch the bleeding, while screaming "it's the Democrat Party's fault!" and see how that works for them.
I know, I know, "what if it works really well for them?" scares me *too*. But if that wouldn't completely tip the scales, if they could still blame the Democrat [sic] Party, and it would stick, we're so totally effed, we might as well know it now, rather than hope for a few more months, and then have our hopes that much more thoroughly dashed.
Um. My humble opinion, YMMV, California mileage probably way more groovy.
It's not that I want people to suffer. It's that they're going to, and the best way for people to suffer is visibly, and, now we would have maximum visibilty, and yes, part of me wants Maxwell to klonk me with his silver hammer when I talk like this.
But we won civil rights when people suffered in front of TV cameras.
So maybe I am wrong, but I have a very strong opinion, and I think Schumer et al are thinking the courts will slow, or stop, Trump, and I think that's… I mean, I hate to say it, but, at this point, I think that's *idiotic*. There were four very bitter dissenting votes for direct impoundment by the executive, for fear of actually spending the money, as legislated, and thereby losing it forever.
Anyway: strong opinion, you don't have to share, but that's why I feel that way.