The Democrats have to make a show of fighting Trump, but Schumer's move was more important anti-Trumpism, and I think they all know it:
On Thursday, Mr. Schumer explained his decision to vote to keep the government open in an opinion piece in The New York Times, a version of which he read on the Senate floor.
“As bad as passing the continuing resolution would be, I believe a government shutdown is far worse,” Mr. Schumer wrote.
From the written opinion piece:
[A] shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now. Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have wide-ranging authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff members with no promise they would ever be rehired.The decisions about what is essential would, in practice, be largely up to the executive branch, with few left at agencies to check it.
Mr. Musk has reportedly said that he wants a shutdown and may already be planning how to use one to his advantage.
When I see articles about how the Democrats are "melting down" and freaking about Schumer, I do a search-the-page for "essential," and if the word's not there, I judge it to be participating in the fake outrage.
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54 comments:
Schumer? Bipartisanship?
The Left has lost patience with the idea that they're not in charge of everything, everywhere.
So, to the Far-Left NYT's (and also the NPR "panel" that I listened to in the car) Shut-downs are good or bad depending on whether they hurt or help the D's.
When the D's are hurt, the DNC-MSM screams about how a few Rightwing nuts are trying to shut down the Goverment, and thereby destroying the country, making people suffer, closing down national parks, jeopardizing national security, etc.
But because they think it helps the D's, and hurts Trump, they want a shutdown, and are sads about Chuck Schumer.
We really need a responsible, objective press in the in USA. Too bad we don't have one.
If it's from the Democrat party, yes, it's fake. I don't doubt that there is intra-party squabbling. Outrage? By what definition?
I do agree though about the Media thing. It's been very enlightening to watch the speed at which Trump is doing things, and the difficulty Media has in keeping up, especially print media! The Paper I read is always 2 or 3 steps behind Trump. I can see how Democrats who control and rely on the Media to get their message across would be frustrated. Next week, rather than boiling mad, maybe they'll be incandescent with rage. That phrase is a great one.
There's the more common real outrage that's just moronic.
Brave Sir Chuckie!
"The decisions about what is essential would, in practice, be largely up to the executive branch, with few left at agencies to check it."
Schumer lets the cat out of the bag. The Dems perceive the bureaucrats, who supposedly report to the President through his Cabinet, are a co-equal fourth branch of the federal government with the task of not serving the executive branch, but controlling it.
What I particularly like from Chuck was his declaration "It’s much, much better not to be in the middle of a shutdown, which to divert people from the number one issue we have against these bastards, sorry, these people, which is not only all these cuts, but they’re ruining democracy.” Which democracy is being ruined, by following the established federal process of funding government, and taking a vote on it? Or, is it 'Our Democracy'?
The mentally ill have lost patience with the merely corrupt.
Maybe one day I'll regret Democrats being honest, because then they'll start regaining the trust from voters they have lost. For now, I'm tired of the constant pretense creating faux drama.
The last President and Congress set up this confrontation in the early part of Trump's Presidency. They wanted it to be a distraction. I think many Trump supporters would have been thrilled with shutting down government and more so Musk using it to DOGE's advantage. I think Trump and the Republican Congress didn't want the distraction. I think President Trump is more interested on foreign policy just now, which requires some stability. Democrat leadership understood a government shutdown would be catastrophic to the bureaucracy and a CR keeps the previous Congress and Administration appropriations in place through September, when they can play this game again.
Sumbitch Schumer hoped Democrats could shutdown the government and blame it on Trump, but the sumbitch folded like a true grifter. He was beaten by the “bastards”, as he refers to his enemies, the Republicans.
What's the name of that new book? Let Them something something? Let Them what? ...Shoot Themselves In The Foot?
Iman said, "Brave Sir Chuckie!"
And there was no rejoicing.
Well I disagree, Althouse. Some of the outrage is faked, but I think that a lot of it is genuine, driven by a belief that shutdowns are good for Democrats and bad for Republicans. That preceding shutdowns were bad for Republicans because they were caused by Republicans is a bit more than the average Democrat is able to process, what with TDS and all.
We all remember how congressional Republicans, encouraged by professional talkers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, would shut down the government, only to cave in humiliation days or weeks later having achieved zilch, zero, nada. Apparently Chuck Schumer was also paying attention.
Iman said...
"Sumbitch Schumer hoped Democrats could shutdown the government and blame it on Trump, but the sumbitch folded like a true grifter. He was beaten by the “bastards”, as he refers to his enemies, the Republicans."
Schumer looked at the response from his original push for shutdown and saw the it would be the Democrats blamed and Trump unleashed to determine who keeps working and who doesn't. DOGE would have had near unfettered access to everything.
He couldn't risk that.
Schumer is correct. It would have been a disastrous decision to "shut down the government" if you're a Democrat. Trump would have had a clear field shutter any operations he wished. Now, way off topic for those of you who think the Ukraine has a chance in this contest: when Ukraine decided to attack Kursk all you had to do was look at a map and you could see that Ukraine had extended its line into a salient which just invited Russia to close the neck of the salient and trap the forces within. The Russians know all about this because Stalingrad was at the tip of a German salient. The Russians cut the neck by attacking the flanks and the battle ended when Paulus surrendered 90,000 troops. (Incidentally in 1943 the Russians defeated the German army at Kursk and began the race to Berlin.) So Trump is now asking Putin to show mercy at the result of the really dumb move that the Ukraine made. It is well past time to stop the killing and Zelensky has even fewer cards or chips to play today.
All the leftist whining about supposed threats to "our democracy" was always laughable drama-queening, but it is getting ever more absurd and less attached to reality as the months go by.
We voted democratically to cram DOGE down your throats, Schumer, so get the hell out of the way, and call off the undemocratic meddling by your unelected leftist judges!
non-stop fighting Trump.
That's all the Micros Soft NBC cultists demand 24/7.
The rest of the nation is sick of it.
"Which democracy is being ruined, by following the established federal process of funding government, and taking a vote on it? Or, is it 'Our Democracy'?"
Trump campaigned relentlessly on his plans should he be elected. So did the Democrats but as it turned out, high inflation, unlimited immigration, endless war and genital mutilation of children was not well received by voters, so they chose Trump. And now, he's doing all the things he said he would.
There's your democracy right there, bitches.
"anger boils over"
g? - that's new.
Mr. Schumer explained his decision to vote to keep the government open in an opinion piece in The New York Times
...but the NYT has definitely changed its stripes and calling em straight down the middle. Riiiight...
Schumer knows fully how shutdowns work. In the past, "essential" services were selectively reduced by Democrats in order to create the most mayhem and subsequent political alarm. They don't want to be on the receiving end of that cricket bat.
- Krumhorn
I remember the Obama government shutdown. He closed the mall ww2 memorial on the day that veterans in wheel chairs were flying in to visit. They tore down the barriers.
Today democrats would have arrest the crippled vets as insurectionist Nazis.
Previously during shutdowns the only news and information was framed around how bad it was to shut down the government.
The problem for the globalists is that we have X now and everyone knows that most of the country is itching for DC to be shut down with Trump in charge. The parks would be kept open and the parts of the government we want would be kept going and all of the BS would get shuttered.
And we would all get to see how much better life would be without half the federal government.
Having the ability to converse and get all points of view on X is the most fundamental change in politics since the printing press.
If a government shuts down in Washington DC and nobody is around to care about it, does that mean we don't need no stinkin' government?
I’m glad to finally be a bastard instead of a STUPID bastard as in the past.
When you get to the understanding that politicians serve first, themselves, and second, the party, and not the people at all, then you will not be having all this angst about what they are doing.
Schumer was holding seven deuce in a raised pot. He either had to shove allin or fold.
More like the toilet boils over, Peachy!
The Democrats don't want to find out if Trump can find a way to keep the government running without 95% of the workforce on the payroll.
RSM: "If a government shuts down in Washington DC and nobody is around to care about it, does that mean we don't need no stinkin' government?"
Great adaptation of a hippie slogan! Here's another: Wouldn't it be great if weapons systems were fielded quickly at high quality, and the Education Department had to hold a bake sale?
JSM
Martin @3:26pm… well said, sir!
Having the ability to converse and get all points of view on X is the most fundamental change in politics since the printing press.
Which is why it is so hated by the high priests of the left-wing religion that worships the all-powerful State as its god.
They are no different than medieval popes burning people alive for printing books that contradicted the teachings of the church and its magisterium.
And they have really been showing us who they are in the past few years. I have no doubt that the Democrat leadership would burn Musk and Trump at the stake in an au·to-da-fé if they could get away with it, and the same goes for most of the governments of Europe and the rest of the "civilized" world.
The wicked filth and scum who govern the developed world are tyrants in the making, and a greater threat to our liberty than any menace we have faced since the days of the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. They are pure evil and must be destroyed.
I prefer that the destruction be done as Trump and Musk are doing right now, but if that is impossible, then I hope the people of Europe and Canada and Australia pick up whatever weapons are at hand and start slitting the throats of their oppressors by the thousands and the tens of thousands.
Government is the worst enemy of humanity, and especially in these days of AI and other technological wizardry, we need to reduce it to its barest minimum by any means necessary, lest we be enslaved by heaps of dung like Justin Trudeau and Gavin Newsom and Klaus Schwab and Keir Starmer and Chuck Schumer.
Parents, take care to teach your kids to hate their government, and teach them how to shoot and fight, and teach them that there is no greater honor than to kill or die in the defense of liberty. By no other means can men be free.
Never interrupt your adversaries while they are in the midst of making a mistake.
Sensible move by the Democrats, given the circumstances.
Not even sure why they’re playing this game. It is the worst hill to die on.
"Now, way off topic for those of you who think the Ukraine has a chance in this contest"
The insurmountable problem is that both Trump and Putin are narcissists living in their own fantasy land. Zelenskyy is the only one with empathy who has some understanding of what ordinary Ukrainians face every day -- death or destruction by missile, drone, FAB guided bombs. Putin's regime allows him to feed almost unlimited numbers of young and old men into a meat grinder. He's relying on the fact that Zelenskyy does not have that 'luxury'. However Putin is running out of equipment, and faces a formidable threat from Ukrainian drones, both on the battlefield and at home. Putin will run out of heavy equipment in about 12 months (almost all equipment now being destroyed is from the Soviet era and production is heavily constrained by manpower shortages), while Ukraine might well develop more long range drones as well as battlefield missiles. Yes, Ukraine has a manpower shortage, but this is fast becoming a drone war, when that may not matter so much.
Does Putin actually want the war to stop? Very unlikely given that a full scale end to hostilities will result in the return of nearly a million young men turned into psychopaths by the constant threat of death from the air. Can't see any way that Putin opts for long term peace at this point, or in the future. The never ending war. This is why all talk of Putin's objectives is meaningless in my opinion. His objective is to subjugate his own people. This war helps him do that, and a free and west leaning Ukraine makes that impossible. Catch 22
The motion to end debate passed 62-38, so the CR will pass. Now, put an end to this farce and pass a real budget for FY26 along with the necessary appropriations legislation. Better still, do it before the end of this fiscal year. Congress has been completely negligent of one of their most important functions for what, 15 years or more?
Hey, remember when Obama shut down National Parks and other stuff?
If you thought the Shutdown Follies couldn’t get any more absurd and spiteful, you were quite mistaken.
It was announced today that an annual sandcastle contest on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach has been cancelled out of sheer malice by the Obama administration, despite the fact that the beach on which it is held — part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area — normally has no lifeguards, no rangers, is permanently open to the public, and requires no funds for day-to-day operations:
A popular youth sandcastle contest on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach is the latest local victim of the federal government shutdown, event organizers said today.
The Leap 30th Anniversary Sandcastle Contest was planned for Saturday, but the continued standoff in Congress over the federal budget is causing organizers to postpone the event until a later date.
Thousands of people were expected to attend the free event, with more than 20 local schools participating. Leap, a local arts advocacy nonprofit, has held the contest for the past three decades.
In a letter sent to participating schools and teams, event organizers said officials with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area notified them on Monday that the contest could no longer take place since Ocean Beach is part of the GGNRA and is closed.
…
“We were told that we could be fined for trespassing and that our permit was no longer valid,” the letter said. “We were also told that our event could be shut down by park rangers or by San Francisco police.”
.
The democrats are not really making a mistake right now. They have nowhere to go. There is really nothing they can do.
As soon as Musk bought X it was over for them. As soon as the people of the world had an open community forum where all ideas were welcome the battle was over.
Since that point what is happening right now is actually the best possible outcome they could have gotten. They are being (mostly) peacefully removed from power. If they had succeeded in killing Trump during the campaign we would be in the mop of phases right now of a kinetic civil war. If they had tried to force in 10 million fake ballots like they did in 2020 they would have been caught on camera and there would have been a purge.
All that you are seeing right now is the solid majority of people imposing their desires on society through Trump and Musk. There will be some short term blood loss from removing the bloodsucking parasites in the form of a "Recession."
Government spending will get slashed and GDP will probably go down. Nobody out here in the country will notice outside of prices on normal goods going down.
aside from the fact that there is More than just the MSM now..
a bigger (hugely bigger) issue is that the current admin is NOT a democrat admin.
when republicans "shut down" government, and a democrat admin gets to implement that "shut down".. The democrats can/WILL make it as horrible as they can.
BUT, when a republican admin gets to implement the "shut down"; people SEE with Their OWN Eyes, that MOST of government doesn't DO Anything..
So whether or not the republicans got "blamed" for it is irrelevant..
Because NOTHING Actually stops during a government "show down" (except for democrat show stoppages)
WORSE, if the republican is Trump, maybe he'd NEVER start the government back up? And THEN how do you work automatic payraises for all government employees?
In Colorado - right now - the Polis-Bennet-Hickenlooper nexus of radical democratic authoritarians - are giving all illegal immigrants drivers licenses. All they have to do is be in the State ONE day. Yep. Also - they are going to make it illegal for ICE to remove an illegal immigrant while they are voting.
I kid you not.
Fake courage.
Fake courage.
Schumer? That clown can't walk down a hall without wearing reading glasses. As Kaka continually demonstrates, dems are lost children.
Schumer's been around DC long enough to remember how Newt Gingrich got blamed for shutting the government down, supposedly because Gingrich didn't get a seat or a meeting on Bill Clinton's plane. Whether or not any of that was true, the legacy media had enough clout in the 90s to make people believe the story. They don't anymore.
Also, the Democrats' big message is that Americans need government. The people -- so the message goes -- need all those bureaucrats to keep doing whatever it is that they are doing. If the Democrats let the government shut down, they've let down all those people. Admittedly, though, this is a major departure from the war footing the Democrats have been on with Trump.
The Democrats behave as if the overwhelming majority of all of their constituents are federal employees, or people related to them. It should behoove them to represent their actual constituents at some point. You know, the ones that expect and are owed some representation…
"As Kaka continually demonstrates, dems are lost children."
Being young and not having life experience to call on, children can be excused for not understanding the world around them. Dems? What's *their* excuse?
It's amusing to see Schumer fighting a rearguard action while taking sniper fire from behind. The old guard Democrats are exiting due to advanced age after a long time in power. The new guard's intended method to govern seems to be Marxism and Anarchy. If Trump is successful the Dems won't see power again for 10 to 20 years. Or better yet, die in the wilderness.
Shut it down until we have a balanced budget.
No more deficits, starting today.
Find a way.
If we do not, a worse catastrophe awaits.
"Please don't throw me in that briar patch:" Trump to Schumer. Schumer declines the gambit but his party is ungrateful. "I would have thrown Trump right in that briar patch," says AOC, "and I'd have done a podcast afterward. The problem is not policies hated by 80% of the American people; the problem is not enough young people using podcasts to explain the hated policies." Yay for AOC. Keep on keeping on.
The Dem's can't vote for shutting down the government and at the same time attack Trump for 'eviscerating' (as Dems might put it) the same Government?... or something. Good for them if they can at least for once, see past the hating of that man, long enough to make rational decision. Let's face it. We need a viable Democrat party. Not in charge but viable.
Aggie writes, "Which democracy is being ruined, by following the established federal process of funding government, and taking a vote on it? Or, is it 'Our Democracy'?"
Whenever a Democrat speaks or writes the word democracy, he/she/it means the stranglehold on arbitrary power the Democratic Party lusts for and regards as its own by divine right* regardless of the bonds and strictures of common law and the Constitution. Everything that undermines that unchecked power is declared a "threat to our democracy", and they've been using that rhetoric for 200 years. In the 1850s the "threat to our democracy" was emancipation. Today it is the approaching end of the unaccountable and self-perpetuating (not to mention unconstitutional) fourth branch of government also known as the Administrative State. When it's gone, the Democratic Party will be cut off from its vital supply of cash bled from the working class. That's why they fear and loathe the President and his assistants.
As Trump's campaign of reform and restoration procedes, look for increasing hysterical and violent rhetoric from the propaganda machine, and more acts of destruction perpetrated by Schumer's private army of terrorists. At this moment, Schumer's go-betweens are also coordinating more assassination attempts, this time aimed at Trump and J.D. Vance. Mike Johnson is seen as weak and easily manipulated, whereas killing Trump alone would only empower an even more aggressive reformer.
*infernal right would be more fitting
Larry J said..."The motion to end debate passed 62-38, so the CR will pass. Now, put an end to this farce and pass a real budget for FY26 along with the necessary appropriations legislation. Better still, do it before the end of this fiscal year. Congress has been completely negligent of one of their most important functions for what, 15 years or more?"
What do you want?
REGULAR ORDER!
When do you want it?
NOW!
"Fake outrage, isn't it?"
Why should their outrage be any different from the rest of their output?
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