On Friday afternoon, Chuck Schumer and nine other Democratic Senators joined with their Republican colleagues on the key vote to enable passage of a stop-gap funding bill to keep the federal government running through September. In congressional jargon, this bill is referred to as a continuing resolution (CR).
Lots of our members have asked for my take, so here goes.
Congressional Democrats were left with 2 bad options, and reasonable minds can disagree as to which was the better (or least bad) approach to take.
On the one hand, the CR is really, really bad. It funds the government through September, but not at current levels. It increases spending for the military and for immigration enforcement, and it cuts spending substantially for everything else. It cuts Washington, DC’s budget by $1 billion (with a B); this is revenue collected from DC taxpayers that the Republicans are basically stealing for Trump’s agenda. And Speaker Johnson has repeatedly assured the budget hawks in his caucus that Trump and Musk will cut spending even further via continued illegal budget rescissions.
On the other hand, government shutdowns are always harmful, including to federal employees and vulnerable communities. And this one would have been more risky than most, because it might have created a pretense for Trump to declare a national emergency and seize even more unchecked powers. (Some reports indicated that Musk has been hoping for a shutdown for this reason.) And if it lasted for more than a couple weeks, it would have prevented the federal courts from operating at full capacity, which would have hamstrung yet another potential check on Trump and Musk.
So again, 2 bad options, and Schumer made his choice. The national leaders of Indivisible, the main federal employees union, House Democratic leader Jeffries, former Speaker Pelosi, and lots of other folks said loudly and repeatedly that Schumer’s choice was the wrong one. That’s why we were urging calls to Schumer and Gillibrand all week.
Whether Schumer or the Indivisible leaders are right, I think it’s fair to say that this week has shown a complete and utter failure of messaging and coordination on the part of congressional Democrats. In the House, leader Jeffries called in his caucus, including one member receiving cancer treatment and another who had just given birth, and they hung together (everyone but Jared Golden) to vote against the Republican CR. Representative Mannion issued a very good statement earlier this week explaining his NO vote. Then Schumer pulled the rug out from under them by waffling back and forth all week, and caving in the end. Even if his reasons for doing so are compelling (2 bad options, remember), the Senate leadership wound up signalling to all of us (and to Trump, who thanked and congratulated Schumer Friday morning) that they have no fight in them.
Two final points.
First, none of this, in my view, is about left v. center; it’s about fight v. cave. In both the House and the Senate, the Democrats who have been standing up strong against Trump and Musk are ideologically diverse. What they have in common is that they’ve got some fight in them. And that’s what voters need to see more of.
Second and I think most important, here’s my hope for all of us, regardless of whether you support or oppose Schumer’s actions this week: Nurse your wounds when you need to, but don’t give up or give in. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I can assure you that some of our elected leaders will disappoint us many more times before it’s over. Our job is to keep holding their feet to the fire.
Tom Keck
Indivisible Onondaga County