Despite loud opposition from constituents and progressive lawmakers against such a move, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) took to the Senate floor Thursday evening to announce he would vote to advance a Republican spending bill that critics say would "sacrifice the needs of working people at the altar of the ultra-wealthy" and greenlight further chaos and destruction by Dotard Trump and his Oligarch-in-Chief Felon Musk.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk want a shutdown to destroy vital government services faster. It would be a disaster. And we have to alert everyone how much pain it would cause the American people. From my interview on @allinwithchris.bsky.social:
-- Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) March 13, 2025 at 11:15 PM
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Dems are in an impossible situation. If they don't pass the spending bill, Mrump would have even more leeway to fire workers.
"A shutdown is uncharted territory when you've got an administration that, at least in some ways, probably would welcome a shutdown because that would give the president almost unlimited power in deciding who's essential, who's nonessential, holding up agencies," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told reporters Wednesday, calling it "a choice between two terrible alternatives."Gotta keep in mind that, unlike pretty much every other prez in hisotry, Trump wants the economy to fail. It assists him in manipulating the stock market and profiting from shorting it.
www.forbes.com
Sound argument from Schumer, but the more progressive elements of the Democratic Party don't agree with him. I will trust Bernie's erudition before Chuckie's: www.commondreams.org
I called Gillibrand and Schumer on Wed. and asked them to vote no on the Republican budget. I had one qualm, however: how would the shutdown affect the court cases being brought against Trump, Musk and OMP, some of which are starting to bear fruit? Two of my favorite online pundits have been weighing in on the topic: Josh Marshall and Marcy Wheeler.
Here are their latest takes, both of which are worth considering, IMO:
Looking Squarely at a Shutdowntalkingpointsmemo.com
It's hard to write clearly when you're being flooded with new information. But here goes. I've heard people arguing the "yes' on cloture" argument, essentially saying, "don't assume you can shut DOGE down, undo the damage. It's not a silver bullet." I can only speak for myself, but if anyone is thinking, based on the arguments I've made, that this is a silver bullet and if Democrats just do this we can shut this whole thing down, I haven't been clear. I will further say that while the things I've written over the last week or so make it pretty clear where I stand on this, I have several times over the last week had a hard think with myself: are you sure you're right about this? I'm not sure I'd say this is a close call. But it's a hard call, for me at least. Both options hold out possibilities of calamity and destruction I've never seriously contemplated before. That is simply where we are. I wish we weren't here. But we are here.
And:
Democrats Have to Stop Making Political Decisions with an Eye Towards 2026
I'm agnostic about whether a shutdown brings more advantage than risks.
One thing I am absolutely certain of, however, is that Democrats on both sides of this debate are framing it in terms of 2026. . . .This mindset has plagued both sides of Democratic debates for two months, with disastrous consequences.
Democracy will be preserved or lost in the next three months. And democracy will be won or lost via a nonpartisan political fight over whether enough Americans want to preserve their way of life to fight back, in a coalition that includes far more than Democrats. You win this fight by treating Trump and Elon as the villain, not by making any one Democrat a hero (or worse still, squandering week after week targeting Democratic leaders while letting Elon go ignored). . . .
I get the anger with Schumer--though I do think his concerns about the courts need to be taken very seriously.
But until Democrats stop thinking in terms of their own leadership in Congress but instead think exclusively about winning the political fight with people being hurt, not as Democrats, but as people opposed to fascism, they're going to be looking for power in the wrong places.
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