Sometime in the next twenty-four hours, the Senate of the United States will determine whether to sign onto a House of Representatives mandated budget resolution, or not. \u00a0\u00a0The Republican House majority passed the resolution they wanted, without any Democratic input or support, sent it to the Senate, and left town for two weeks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If the resolution isn’t passed, the federal government will partially shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Republicans in the Senate have a problem.\u00a0 \u00a0While they have a majority (technically three votes, plus a tiebreaking Vice President if needed), they don\u2019t have the sixty votes needed to end a filibuster.\u00a0\u00a0So it takes all fifty-three Republicans plus seven Democrats to actually get the budget resolution to a final majority vote. (Technically it\u2019s eight Democrats.\u00a0\u00a0One Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, is likely to vote against the resolution).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Republicans aren\u2019t giving an inch to the Democrats.\u00a0 \u00a0There\u2019s no negotiations, no political give and take.\u00a0\u00a0The Senate Republicans are jamming the House Republican\u2019s bill down the Democrat\u2019s throat, just like the House jammed it down the Senate\u2019s throat..\u00a0\u00a0So Democrats have a choice.\u00a0\u00a0They can make a symbolic gesture:\u00a0\u00a0give enough votes to get past the filibuster, then vote against the actual resolution.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s one of those, \u201cI was for it before I was against it, votes\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And that will allow the government to stay open, on totally Republican terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That will make the Democrats look complicit, weak and helpless. And it should.\u00a0\u00a0The MAGA-Republicans have been shutting down the Government already.\u00a0 \u00a0Ask the thousands of government employees fired by the DOGE kids and Elon Musk.\u00a0\u00a0Democrats have screamed, cursed, and cried; but done little to actually stop the Executive takeover of Congressional power.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or the Democrats could hold, and not give Republicans the votes they need to pass the House resolution.\u00a0 And since the House is intentionally absent \u2013 then the government will partially shut down Friday at midnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The media is split.\u00a0\u00a0Will the \u201cfault\u201d for the shutdown fall on the Republicans, with majorities in both the House and Senate and control of the White House, or will it fall on minority Senate Democrats who didn\u2019t provide the seven votes.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The media might be split, but it seems pretty clear to me.\u00a0\u00a0Republicans haven\u2019t even asked a Democrat\u2019s opinion about the resolution.\u00a0\u00a0This isn\u2019t give-and-take politics, this is brinksmanship:\u00a0\u00a0vote for the resolution or take the blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Democrats:\u00a0\u00a0don\u2019t fall for it.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a Republican government, with a Republican majority.\u00a0 \u00a0If they choose not to allow for Democratic input, then it\u2019s all on them.\u00a0\u00a0Democrats have \u201cone job\u201d:\u00a0\u00a0to stand up to the unconstitutional actions of the Republican President and his unelected friends.\u00a0\u00a0And that one job requires them to exercise the only control they have left, the vote to maintain the filibuster in the Senate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the whole reason Democrats didn\u2019t pass the Voting Rights Act, or the Abortion Rights Act, or all of the other reforms when the Democrats controlled the Senate, House, and Presidency just three years ago.\u00a0 \u00a0We didn\u2019t because if Senate Democrats \u201cbroke\u201d the filibuster, then Republicans would too.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what we gave up for this one remaining power.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTalking Heads\u201d say voters in 2026 will blame someone for closing the government.\u00a0 Surely, the biggest talking head of all, Donald Trump, will lay the blame on Democrats.\u00a0\u00a0But in the end, it\u2019s all in his hands (and Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Thune).\u00a0\u00a0If they are interested in keeping the government open, they can negotiate with Senate Democrats.\u00a0\u00a0If they\u2019re not, then they own the shutdown, just like they owned all of the other ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s my calculus.\u00a0\u00a0The government shuts down, and Trump screams bloody murder, and the social security checks get slowed up and Federal money stops going to the states.\u00a0 \u00a0In the end, as Harry Truman said, \u201cthe buck stops here\u201d, right at the President\u2019s desk.\u00a0\u00a0So let\u2019s see if Trump, the supposed author (it was ghost-written) of the \u201cArt of the Deal\u201d, can actually make a deal.\u00a0\u00a0He can deal with the Senate Democrats, or he can deal with being the President who failed the American people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s on him.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s on the Senate Democrats to hold firm.\u00a0\u00a0We Americans, have sacrificed a lot for the \u201cright\u201d to do so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make it worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"