The Democratic Party’s contingent in the Senate finally rallied on Thursday and appeared for a brief moment to be on the brink of putting up its first real show of resistance under a second Trump administration.
With Friday’s deadline for a government shutdown creeping closer, Democratic senators came out one after another to signal opposition to the GOP bill approving continued federal funding, while cutting nondefense spending for the remainder of the 2024 fiscal year.
But it was little more than a political gambit the party hoped would both avert a shutdown and allow Democrats to put their own doomed 30-day proposal up for a vote — a Resistance In Name Only. News broke Thursday evening that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated to his caucus that he’ll vote for cloture on the GOP bill, allowing it to avoid a filibuster. Others will join him, while a few in swing districts and hardline progressives may not.
With his decision, the House CR is on track to pass Friday, barring any surprises. Republicans will allow the Democrats’ plan up for a vote, then kill it.
“Republicans do not have the votes,” Schumer had falsely said just a day earlier.
His decision rejected criticism from the House, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who named the ploy on Twitter and ridiculed members for thinking that voting to override the filibuster on the Republican plan would end in any other outcome besides the passage of the House GOP continuing resolution (CR).
“I hope Senate Democrats understand there is nothing clever about setting up a fake failed 30 day CR first to turn around & vote for cloture on the GOP spending bill,” wrote Ocasio-Cortez. “Those games won’t fool anyone. It won’t trick voters, it won’t trick House members. People will not forget it.”
“Nothing clean about this CR. It’s dirty,” added Eugene Vindman, a newly-elected Democrat from a swing district in Virginia.
Those comments weren’t made in a vacuum. House and Senate Democrats alike are under a deluge of calls and in-person demands from their voters to show a spine and block Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts from carving apart the federal government. Republicans, meanwhile, are facing increasing pressure to explain how they’ll cut trillions from the federal budget without scaling back Medicaid or Social Security.
Passed by the lower chamber on Tuesday, the House bill includes minimal cuts to nondefense spending and also fails to restrict federal agencies under the DOGE scalpel from reappropriating funds. Senate Democrats are instead supporting a 30-day clean CR that would give members time to reach a deal on a longer omnibus spending bill.
Democrats are fearful that the effects of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts will be even greater during a shutdown as the Executive Branch has some discretion over deeming agency staffers “nonessential”.
John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat reviled by his party’s progressive wing, also lashed out at his fellow senators for playing politics and stated that he would vote to break the filibuster on the GOP bill.
“The weeks of performative ‘resistance’ from those in my party were limited to undignified antics,” he said. “Voting to shut the government down will punish millions or risk a recession.”
Important as many lawmakers will find protecting the American economy from further shocks amid Donald Trump’s trade war, the fact remains that Friday’s shutdown deadline puts the Democratic Party in an awkward position. With more and more of their base fired up, impatient with congressional Democratic leadership to put up a real fight against GOP funding cuts, Senate Democrats appear to be on the edge of handing Republicans one more win at precisely the worst political moment.
