Living hell: Trump's shutdown goal
Flight cuts, SNAP defiance, the system begins to fail. Trump wants to trade that for killing the filibuster, giving him more control.
The White House shutdown clock reads 37 days, 8 hours, 18 minutes and 54 seconds. A federal judge in Rhode Island has ordered the Trump administration to fully pay SNAP benefits for November out of the congressionally appropriated contingency fund. But air traffic controllers are still not being paid, and some are laying out of work. This has led the FAA to inform airlines of slowdowns in the system, which in turn has led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights. Imagine if you have flights booked for Thanksgiving week, and now your plans are up in the air (literally). I think you might decide to call your senator’s office.
In return for his imprimatur on ending the shutdown, on which Democrats in the senate have continually refused to capitulate, President Donald Trump wants the Senate to nuke the filibuster.
Axios reported: “We have to get the country open,” he told Republican senators on Wednesday. “And the way we’re going to do it this afternoon is to terminate the filibuster.”
Trump advisers told Axios that the president is planning to make life a “living hell” for Republicans and push to end the filibuster.
As if it’s not a living hell for Republicans under Trump already, especially after this week’s warning shot from voters. This, of course, is not the first time, or even the first time Republicans have threatened to kill the filibuster. The filibuster itself has died a thousand deaths, and is no longer available for Supreme Court nominations, executive and judicial nominations, or post-cloture debate on certain nominations. Trump wants it gone so he can rule the senate like he does the House with the slimmest possible majority and a pliant vice president to break ties.
As much as it will cost the nation to keep the filibuster, Democrats should not let it die. They need it now, and Republicans will regret the filibuster’s death in the future. I guarantee it.
If the filibuster is not killed, and Democrats refuse to come to the table, thinking that their resistance is feeding the fire that propelled their election sweeps this week, then things will quickly grind to a halt in the government. People planning trips and needing passports will not get them. Licenses and all kinds of documents and reports vital to planning and markets will go undone. Programs will languish, research will decline. The military will lose effectiveness and cohesion.
But the people won’t put up with their Thanksgiving travel plans getting scorched by politics. I expect a groundswell of calls to Democrats in the senate will begin to move things toward opening. I also expect we might learn of the results of back channel negotiations and meetings between Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s staff and certain Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune.
Today, the senate plans to vote on a measure that, according to POLITICO’s reporting, “could pave the way to end the government shutdown.” But Democrats are playing coy at Thune’s offer of a “funding patch” with a kick-the-can into January provision. If there is no end today, the senate is scheduled to break for a week over the Veterans Day holiday. That break may not happen as the senate may stay in session over the weekend.
We are moving out of the realm of performative political theater and into the realm of national harm. Harm is the goal of the Trump White House, to get Democrats to knuckle under. And Democrats believe that knuckling under is the wrong message, especially for the progressive wing of the party. So the progressives are willing to endure a lot of pain for the nation. Many Republicans are caught in the middle.
Just two days ago, Majority Leader Thune said there was not enough support to kill the filibuster. But one party is going to have to break first. Either the Democrats will break and take one of Thune’s offers to reopen the government, or Republicans will break and nuke the filibuster, earning eternal political damnation for doing it. Either way, Trump is going to get one side to break, unless they make a bipartisan deal.
I am hoping against hope for the bipartisan deal that saves the filibuster and opens the government. That would be the best option for the nation, and would send the White House the message that Congress can and should properly assert its position as the primus inter pares among the branches.
If not, prepare for the pain to increase as things grind down.
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"We are moving out of the realm of performative political theater and into the realm of national harm."
The GOP controls all three branches of the federal gov't.
The Democrats have a good-enough message in that they're the only thing standing between voters and higher healthcare costs, and it's entirely within the GOP's power to leave healthcare alone. They also have a *great* message in that this is Mike Johnson's shutdown, as he's buying time to figure out what to do before he has to bring the House back into session, and House overrides him through a discharge petition to release the Epstein files.
Trump's not doing himself any favors pushing back against the lower-level courts ordering him to make SNAP payments and having his Transportation Secretary ruin everyone's Thanksgiving travel plans.
The leopards are feasting well this season.
Yep! I go along with your thought that the traveling public will call their Democrat Senators and order them to vote for the Continuing Resolution. I’ve already called Patti Murray and Maria Cantwell’s offices and told them to that if I miss flying to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving they will forever lose my vote. My closing sentence was “You better vote for the people of Washington on this and screw Chuck Shummer.”