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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued that he had to support the Republican CR because otherwise, the government would shut down, and Trump would have unlimited power to gut the federal government.
The argument was hogwash when he made it. Nancy Pelosi debunked it.
Sure enough, shortly after Schumer caved and the CR was passed, Donald Trump did this:
What you are looking at is part of an executive order that gutted seven government agencies including Voice of America and the Smithsonian. You can also see that Trump’s EO guts agencies for community development and minority business development and tackles the issue of homelessness.
Chuck Schumer told the nation that the government needed to be open, so that the Congress could check Trump and prevent him from unlimited power to gut the government, so where is the Senate right now?
The Senate is on recess.
A government shutdown would have defunded the Executive Branch. It would not have stopped Trump and Musk from hacking away at the federal government, but it would have forced the president to have a showdown with Democrats to stop Musk and this behavior.
The shutdown would have been the first move by Democrats, not the last. Thanks to Schumer, Democrats have no leverage until the debt ceiling needs to be raised in a few months to avoid a default.
Schumer’s excuses for keeping the government open were bogus and were immediately disproven by Trump’s behavior.
Democrats learned that there is a group of their own senators that can’t be trusted to fight for them.
The sense of betrayal that many Democrats are feeling today is real. It the same feeling that many had when the party pushed Joe Biden off the ticket, even though Democratic primary voters chose him as their nominee. Whether that was the right thing to do or if the primary should have been handled in another way are different questions.
The point is that there is a collection of elitist Democrats in government and in the media; think of the Pod Save America guys/Ezra Klein, who aren’t listening to what Democratic voters want and, frankly, don’t care.
These people, from Schumer on down, continue to make decisions, and there is a reckoning coming in the Democratic Party soon.
What do you think about Schumer’s cave blowing up in his face? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
