If lawmakers do not pass a bill to fund the government by the end of the day on Friday March 14th, the United States government will shut down. Given the unilateral destruction that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have wrought in shutting down as many parts of the government as they can already, it’s fair to ask how different the world may be without a spending bill passed through Congress. The House passed a horrible bill called a continuing resolution to keep the government funded through September, and the fight to get it across the finish line went to the Senate.
Formally shutting the government down would have all sorts of negative consequences, and Wired reports that Musk wants a shutdown so he can gain even more power to fire hundreds of thousands of federal workers. As much as a shutdown could be politically beneficial for the Democrats (assuming that they can get the messaging right, which is a whole different story), it would be calamitous for America.
But passing this bill is also calamitous for America, especially Washington D.C. who it effectively steals $1 billion from. Plus, this whole thing is a farce anyway, as JD Vance already reportedly told the Republican conference that “I want everyone to vote yes. The president, under Section II will ensure allocations from Congress are not spent on things that harm the taxpayer.” Translated to plain English, that means “it doesn’t matter what’s in this bill, Trump will still fund whatever he wants, just get this show on the road.”
While spineless “primary me” Democrats like John Fetterman came out before they saw the bill and said they would vote for whatever averts a shutdown and saves the GOP majority’s bacon, the Democratic base spent all day calling and reaching out to their Senators to oppose this horrible continuing resolution passed along virtual party lines in the House (one Republican, Thomas Massie, and one Democrat, Jared Golden, each defected to the other side).
Given the **gestures at everything** around Democrats, everyone prepared for the worst today, then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stepped on to the Senate floor and surprised us all, saying that “funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path. Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House [continuing resolution]. Our caucus is unified.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock, who has been voting for many of Trump’s nominees, told reporters that “quite frankly, both outcomes are bad. Elections have consequences, but this is an extreme bill. If it passes, it will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground. If the government shuts down, that will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground, and so that, that is the dilemma in which we found ourselves.”
Republicans need eight Democrats to defect to invoke cloture and effectively get this bill passed, because it would put it up for a vote on the Senate floor where they have a majority. Defending the 60-vote threshold needed to invoke cloture is where the Democrats have actual leverage, and by gosh, they actually used it today. They even got Fetterman to shut his mouth for a little while as Schumer claimed to be “unified.” He sent this crap bill back to the GOP conference and made it their problem again. At least for now.
We shall see whether this newfound Democratic strength to dig their heels in lasts up to the deadline to fund the government on Friday. Given that all lawmakers’ worst nightmare is working weekends, I have my doubts they will hold firm. But for now, it’s nice to see this small bit of resistance from a Democratic Senate who so far has been likelier to vote for Trump’s agenda than to actively try to slow it down or stop it (post-edit note: if TPM’s report is correct, this is not resistance, it’s a show to try to gaslight Democratic voters into thinking that it is).
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