- Catastrophe is averted…
- Schumer caves…
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Dear Reader,
Touch off the rockets! Light the sparklers!
American civilization — by all accounts — is preserved.
At midnight tonight, the United States government confronted a “shutdown.”
At issue was a continuing resolution that would keep the Imperial City in funds through September.
The majority of Republicans were for it. President Trump was for it.
Thus the majority of Democrats were against it.
Yet Republicans have triumphed, evidently.
Details to follow.8
Catastrophe Averted
Republicans maintain a 53-seat Senate majority. Yet they required several Democratic yeas to erect a fortress against a potential filibuster.
Should the warring factions have failed to sink their differences by midnight tonight… Uncle Samuel’s doors would have swung shut… and Pandora’s infamous box would have swung open.
Every species of calamity would have ensued.
The ranger patrolling the National Park of American Samoa would have been thrown into idleness…
The Federal Theatre Project would have been thrown into darkness…
And the visiting seventh-grader from Grand Forks, North Dakota — barred from the Lincoln Memorial — would have been thrown into despair.
Not All Would Have Been Lost
Yet not all would have been lost…
Federal workers deemed essential to the safety of the Republic would have remained in post — the customs official at Ketchikan, Alaska, for example.
The Transportation Security Agency would have continued guarding the aerial ways against infants, great-grandmothers, wheelchair-riders and related satans.
In event of armed invasion, the Marines would have answered the bugle.
Social Security checks would have still gone issuing through the mails.
That is, the nation would have pegged along substantially uninterrupted.
Yet on all such occasions of political shutdown, politics was the central consideration.
The Tables Turn on Democrats
On previous occasions when the United States government “shut down” — again the quote marks are necessary — blame generally falls upon Republican shoulders.
In this instance, however, blame would have descended largely upon Democratic shoulders.
Thus Democrats hung from the hooks of a gorgeous dilemma.
Should they say yea to the continuing resolution, they would yield Republicans — and the Evil One of the White House — a legislative victory.
The party’s base would be very angry with them.
Yet should they say no, they feared public denunciation for shuttering the federal government.
What to Do?
Thus reports Vox:
- This “continuing resolution” (as it’s called in Congress) is Democrats’ first high-profile chance at a stand-off with Republicans in Donald Trump’s second term — their chance to try to negotiate for some oversight and accountability over the White House, Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” and their cuts across the government.
- And the Democratic base is furious at its leaders; to help Republicans keep the government open would send yet another message to Democrats that their party isn’t confronting Trump the way they want them to.
- But shutdowns are never popular — and the risks of forcing one are real: Designating a score of government employees as nonessential could facilitate the work of Musk and DOGE, while giving Trump a foil as his own approval ratings fall.
Democrats Choose the Lesser of Two Evils
Yet Democrats have evidently said yea. They have chosen the lesser of their perceived evils.
That is, they have chosen to squeeze their nostrils shut… gulp the bitter pill… and embrace the continuing resolution.
Behind government shutdown they could not stand. Far too many risks attended it.
It may please their activist base, yes. Yet it would displease the average American voter, they concluded.
My spies informed me yesterday of an overheard discussion to that effect.
They had positioned themselves outside a private lunch of Senate Democrats.
Sen. Gillibrand Reads Fellow Democrats the Riot Act
Thick wooden walls separated my men from the luncheon.
Yet my spies placed their ears against these walls.
They registered the shrieks of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
She hollered that Democrats must reject a shutdown of the United States government.
It would simply empower the enemy, she hammered and hammered again.
It would deny them all negotiating leverage.
Her shriekings evidently brought Senate Minority Leader — Mr. Chuck Schumer — into her camp.
Schumer Makes a Dramatic U-Turn
The New York Post:
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made a dramatic U-turn Thursday and announced that he would vote to allow Republicans to forge ahead with consideration of their plan to avert a partial government shutdown Friday at midnight.
- Schumer (D-NY) argued that if the Democrats stall a Republican plan to avert a partial government shutdown, it will give President Trump too much power and have far more devastating ramifications than the GOP spending patch.
More:
- “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” Schumer declared in a Senate floor speech Thursday evening.
- “Allowing [President] Trump to take even much more power is a far worse option.”
- “Under a shutdown, Trump and Elon Musk would have carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now,” he added.
- “I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the American people, therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.”
Thus the Senate Minority Leader thrusts a finger to gauge the prevailing winds.
Forget About Honesty
What about the honest few in Congress who demand a square and honest budgeting — who turn from party politics?
Their arms are twisted and their skulls are bashed.
They are pummeled into resigned submission.
They withdraw from the scene, ultimately.
It is why, ultimately, you have a nation sunk $36.5 trillion in red ink.
As I have argued before:
If you expect officials to make courageous choices guided by sound principle… if it is responsible statesmanship you seek… do not look to Washington.
It is the wrong address.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
