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  • The White House campaign to secure votes from wavering House GOP members includes promising conservatives that Trump can impound funds after Congress approves them.

    What the fuck? I don't even know where to begin here. Wouldn't this mean that budgets no longer matter? Does it just mean that openly lying to the American people (Yes, I know, politics and all that. You know what I mean) is now an open and accepted norm to get your agenda through? Doesn't this essentially mean that Congress's "power of the purse" has been ceded to the Executive branch?

    Democrats in Congress are in a tough spot.

    No they are not. The GOP has control of literally every branch of government. Let them pass these bills without a single Democrat vote. If the GOP can't get their own party behind their own bills, that's their fault. Not Democrats.

    But of course, we all know that the GOP literally believes Democrats exist for the sole purpose of saving them from themselves. They've openly stated this. And for some reason, Democrats continue to play the GOP's game by their rules.

    First, Democrats want a written guarantee within the appropriations bill that the president will commit to spending the funds precisely as Congress legislates.

    There is exactly zero chance that Trump would ever honor such a guarantee. He's currently in a trade war with Canada over a trade deal that he himself wrote and negotiated. The man considers stiffing contractors and forcing them to accept less pay for work already completed is a legitimate business tactic. He has long since proven his worth literally isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Trump would use that as toilet paper before the ink from his sharpie even dried.

    Second, Democrats are loath to cause a government shutdown. They identify as the party committed to making government work.

    Have they been paying attention for the past 2 months? This is what they consider government "working'? All things considered, a government shutdown would probably be less damaging at this point. Anything they're trying to keep open Trump would probably shut down anyway.

    Senate Democrats face a choice. Hold out for a better funding bill at the cost of being blamed (at least in the short run) for shutting down the government?

    Yes. They're blaming Democrats for everything anyway. What's the difference? The defense is very simple: "Trump has already caused immeasurable amounts of damage to the federal government and the services they provide, and have laid off tens of thousands of workers. We cannot in good conscience cast votes to pass a bill that not only gives validation to these tactics but will speed up the process." The general public, on both sides of the aisle, is already against Musk and DOGE. This isn't a hard argument to make.

    Third, Democrats fear Trump could weaponize a government shutdown. He could ignore rules that designate certain federal workers as “essential personnel,” such as the public health and safety officials required to work without pay during a shutdown. Instead, Trump (or Elon Musk or Russell Vought) could decide who counts as “essential.” What’s more, the Trump administration could fire scores of additional federal workers under the fiction that if their jobs are not deemed “essential,” they are targets for letting go.

    THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE'S DOING NOW FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK

    What's he going to do with workers he's already planning on firing anyway? Fire them harder?

    It’s not clear this Senate minority is sufficiently united nor willing to shoulder that risk by voting down the spending plan.

    Because Chuck Schumer is a fucking coward. He literally said that Jeffries needs to play nice with New York Republicans because there's nothing he can do in the Senate. The man is literally rolling over and playing dead, and advising Jeffries to do the same thing. These two fucking cucks make Merrick Garland look like he should have been given a Presidential Award for Bravery by comparison.

    Neither one of them should be offering up a single Democrat vote for anything without first (a) dissolving DOGE, (b) reversing all of DOGE's actions, and (c) enacting this shit before they get a single Dem vote on anything.

    Let the GOP pass a bill reversing and eliminating DOGE, and then passing it through Trump's inevitable veto. Then actually make Trump get rid of Musk and shut that whole thing down. THEN negotiations can begin. But if they're not willing to do that, let them pass their bills without Democrat support for even the most basic procedural votes. There is zero reason for Democrats to take the GOP's word on anything, especially when Trump's plan to get it through is to just lie to people until they get the votes and then just renege on the deal later.

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