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."
www.forbes.com
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.
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 Shutdown
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.
talkingpointsmemo.com
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.
www.emptywheel.net
Another view ...
Don't Use Shutdown Plans to Slash the Federal Workforce
www.lawfaremedia.org
... The first months of President Trump's second term have been defined by firings of government workers, as the administration attempts to unilaterally strip the executive branch of many powerful assets. Elon Musk's "DOGE," along with agencies like the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), are choking off services to the public by incapacitating the agencies that are bound by law to deliver those services.
Currently, the administration is gearing up to further reduce agency capacity through reductions in force, or RIFs"this time targeted at those employees who do not work during a government shutdown. President Trump issued Executive Order 14210 on Feb. 11, directing agencies to use "efficiency improvements and attrition" to shrink the federal workforce. The order told agency heads to "promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force (RIFs)."
It might seem like a quick and easy way to figure out whose jobs are important is to see who needs to work during a shutdown, call those people "essential," and fire everyone else.
But in truth, measures prepared for shutdowns have little to do with the kinds of considerations that go into RIFs. By seeking to combine two mismatched categories, the executive order misuses RIFs, misunderstands shutdown plans, and introduces political manipulation into what is meant to be an orderly process for winding down unneeded positions. ...
As the norm for lawfaremedia.org, a long, yet insightful article.