1w ago

Democrats in Congress see potential shutdown as leverage to counter Trump

www.theguardian.com Democrats in Congress see potential shutdown as leverage to counter Trump

Republicans will need Democrats’ help to pass funding bill by 14 March as hard-right lawmakers push to cut costs

With the US federal government expected to shut down in one month unless Congress approves a funding bill, Democratic lawmakers are wrestling with just how far they are willing to go to push back against Donald Trump’s radical rightwing agenda that has thrown American politics into turmoil.

Specifically, Democrats appear divided on the question of whether they would be willing to endure a shutdown to demonstrate their outrage over the president’s attempted overhaul of the federal government.

“There’s no reasonable funding bill that could make its way through the Senate that wouldn’t cause uproar in the Republican party on the House side,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive group Indivisible. “That is the fault of the Republicans in the House, not anybody else. But because of that, it is something that is giving Democrats in the House leverage.”

politics @lemmy.world

MicroWave @lemmy.world

1w ago

Democrats in Congress see potential shutdown as leverage to counter Trump

www.theguardian.com /us-news/2025/feb/15/democrats-congress-federal-shutdown-trump

125 24

6 comments

Democrat House Representatives, hear me out for just one sec. Real talk, no matter what you do, Trump, Johnson and the Republicans are going to blame you for their own failures. So just don't go along with it. You're the minority now, be like what the Republicans were, [except] make a proper plan and tell them to fuck off unless they are willing to actually do their job, hold Trump in check, and do good things for people. Don't settle for authoritarians.
- The Republiklans have created a situation where they win no matter what. Think tick-tack-toe where they own three corners with two separate gaps between them and no matter which gap you block they fill the other and take the win.
  If the Dems shut down the gov’t, the gov’t ceases to work, and DOGE wins anyway because that’s what they’re already doing. They blame the Dems. Then they use the failure as leverage to take more power and control away from the dysfunctional Congress, which they could do outright (because fuck the constitution) or by declaring a state of emergency. They just need an excuse to name Democrats Enemies of the State and begin rounding them up.
  There isn’t a win here unless the Democrats can grab themselves by the balls, pull out some charisma, and steal the narrative while bringing light to what’s happening. We’re seeing the Republiklans destroy America in real time. They need to convince Rs in Congress, and possibly the SCOTUS, and then convince the military to back a counter-power grab to dethrone Trump and his cronies.
  But, you won’t see that. That’ll be labeled a ‘coup’ by the Rs, when the Rs and Elite already are doing just that right now.

Let's be honest. They ain't gone do SHIT.

They won’t shut down anything and then say, “See? We work across the aisle!”
No one will remember or care. And in two years they’ll lose more ground, and we’ll have another 100 think pieces on “What the Democrats Did Wrong.”
I’m not saying shutting down the government is the answer that’ll solve all the problems. But as better people have said: the democrats are over here looking in the rule book to see if a dog can play basketball while the republicans are dunking over and over.
They have to figure out a better way to combat a group actively tearing down the government illegally. I don’t know what that is. But also I wasn’t elected to find out. They were. So they need to figure it out.

overhaul
That's charitable to an excess

"news".

6 comments