Democrats Pressed ‘To Actually Fight’ Trump Over Government Funding This Time

WASHINGTON ― Congressional Democrats are facing calls to avoid a repeat of the last federal spending showdown with Donald Trump, which resulted in an embarrassing cave which badly damaged the party’s standing with their own core supporters.

This time, progressive activists want Democrats to make stronger demands reversing some of the president’s controversial policies in exchange for their votes on a bill keeping the government open next month — even if it risks causing a partial shutdown.

“I want them to actually fight instead of surrendering immediately like last time,” Ezra Levin, co-director of Indivisible, a progressive movement organization founded in 2016, told HuffPost. “In the absence of clear demands, you’re not going to win this fight.”

Republicans control both the House and the Senate, but given their fractious conference in the lower chamber, and their lack of a filibuster-proof majority in the upper one, Democratic votes will be needed to pass legislation to avoid a shutdown. How the party handles this fight could have serious repercussions, especially with next year’s midterm elections looming on the horizon.

In March, after signaling he would oppose a Republican government-funding bill that had unexpectedly passed through the House, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wound up voting for the bill along with nine other Democrats. Democrats inside of Congress and out were furious; at the time, billionaire Elon Musk was just getting started tearing down federal agencies.

“I think it is a huge slap in the face, and I think that there’s a wide sense of betrayal,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters at the time.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks to reporters following the Senate policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images

Top Democrats haven’t publicly laid out their demands for this month’s spending fight, insisting, like last time, that an agreement to fund the government will require bipartisan support to become law.

“The only way to avoid a shutdown is to work in a bipartisan way, with Democrats and Republicans, with a bill that gets both parties in the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a press conference on Wednesday. “Republicans are once again threatening to go at it alone, heading our country towards a shutdown and making the health care crisis worse.”

Democratic senators have hinted the health care crisis of which Schumer speaks could ultimately be key to Democratic demands. They have complained bitterly about Medicaid cuts in the major tax cut bill Republicans passed over the summer, as well as the need to extend Obamacare insurance premium subsidies expiring at the end of the year.

They’ve also warned that the Trump administration’s recent attempt to advance a $5 billion “pocket rescission,” or an effort to rescind funds Congress already approved very close to the end of the fiscal year, would backfire and increase the odds of a shutdown. Pocket rescissions are illegal, according to the independent U.S. Government Accountability Office, but White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has defended the move.

“A pocket rescission is a poke in the eye. The OMB director wants the government to shut down,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Wednesday.

Some Republicans have also criticized the Trump administration for attempting to illegally withhold nearly $5 billion in foreign aid via the pocket rescission. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called it a “clear violation of the law,” while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said it would “risk throwing the entire process into chaos.”

The attempted pocket rescission, as well as the White House’s proposed reductions in spending for major health and education programs, could make it harder for Democrats to agree to fund the government. There is already widespread dissatisfaction with the party for not doing more to oppose Trump’s unprecedented and illegal power grabs in the nation’s capital.

“We’re at a point where I honestly do not care about what some pundit’s opinion on what a government shutdown may or may not look like in an election a year from now. I’m sorry, we are beyond that,” Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner told HuffPost on Monday. “Whatever can be done to slow down this speed run toward authoritarianism that we are currently undertaking – anything that we can do to slow that down is necessary and should be done.”

“They should all walk out,” added Tim Bailey, a retired Marine who showed up to hear Platner speak at a rally in Portland, Maine, on Monday. “What [Trump] is doing down there is horrific. I mean, it’s just a bait and switch for all the executive orders and horseshit and laws he’s breaking.”

But most Democratic senators are, for the moment, keeping their powder dry.

“I think there’s interest in finding a bipartisan path forward. We’ll see what happens,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), a vulnerable Democrat up for reelection next year.

Meanwhile, in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he’s optimistic about avoiding a shutdown. “It’s going to require leaders on both sides of the aisle to come together and do that,” he said Tuesday.

So far, rank-and-file Democrats are saying it’s up to Republicans to start the process. “The Republicans are in the majority and control the chamber, and so if they want to avoid a government shutdown, they’re going to have to get their shit together,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) told HuffPost.

However, if House Republicans are able to pass a short-term bill funding the government on their own, without placing any restrictions on Trump’s administration, it would again put Senate Democrats in a bind. Like in March, they would once more face a tough decision as to whether to accept the bill or risk a government shutdown.

Levin said Wednesday he didn’t understand why Senate Democrats hadn’t gotten more specific yet.

“It’s just baffling to me,” Levin said, suggesting Democrats could ask to reverse Medicaid cuts or to release the Epstein files, for instance. “There are plenty of wildly popular things Democrats could put forward.”