WASHINGTON — The government’s funded. Democrats are warring with Democrats. Republicans are smiling.
Democrats are now left picking up the pieces after the party’s left flank erupted in anger when Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reversed course and voted — along with nine other Senate Democrats — to advance the GOP’s six-month government funding measure.
The dynamics of their stunning defeat has many Democrats worried party leaders just signed away what little leverage the party maintained after their resounding defeat in November.
“I ultimately think this sets a really awful precedent, which is, it's hard to get Democrats back in the room on spending decisions,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story. “And I don't buy that this is anything close to a CR [continuing resolution]. It's got major changes that are gonna hurt my state.”
That’s right. Rank-and-file Democrats are freaking out, in part, because they think Schumer just accidentally empowered President Donald Trump and his sidekick, tech executive Elon Musk.
“We're fighting an enemy that does not follow the law”
See, rather than simply continuing government funding at last year’s levels, Republicans — who refused to even negotiate with their Democratic counterparts on the final package — included $13 billion in cuts to domestic programs in the measure, along with an increase to the Pentagon’s budget.
That’s not the norm, but Democrats say nothing’s normal in Trump’s Washington.
“Are you worried that this sets a new precedent?” Raw Story asked a senior member of the Senate Appropriations — or spending — Committee.
“I think everything President Trump is doing sets a new precedent,” Sen. Jeene Shaheen (D-NH) told Raw Story.
The question Democrats are wrestling with is, how do they fight back from their perch in the minority? In the House, Democrats stayed unified, with only one caucus member, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), crossing the aisle to vote with the GOP.
That’s why House Democrats are livid with their Senate counterparts, especially progressives.
After Schumer reversed course, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to social media and urged her millions of followers to call their Democratic senators and pressure them to oppose the government funding measure.
Now that it passed, the 10 Democratic senators who moved the bill forward are being lambasted by the party’s enlivened base.
"Are we in the midst of a Democratic civil war?” Raw Story asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
“We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis provoked by co-presidents of the United States, Musk and Trump, who don't think that either the Constitution or statutory law applies to them,” Warren told Raw Story while walking through the Capitol. “We're fighting back on every front, but make no mistake, we're fighting an enemy that does not follow the law and that makes it pretty tough for lawmakers.”
“Sen. Warren, do you still have confidence in Leader Schumer?” another reporter asked as the senator entered an elevator.
“Senator,” another reporter called out. “Do you still have confidence in Leader Schumer?”
Warren never replied. She’s not alone.
“How did we get ourselves into this situation?”
While Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) turned heads for refusing to answer that question — whether Schumer maintains his support — the House minority leader doesn’t get a vote in the Senate.
"Do you still have faith in Schumer, though?" a reporter asked freshman Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
"We are still united as a caucus," Gallego, who evaded the question, replied as he escaped via one of the Capitol’s 'Senators only' elevators. "Which is why we should ensure that we have a good post mortem."
Gallego’s new to the Senate, but he’s urging his Democratic colleagues to take progressive outrage and complaints coming from the House of Representatives seriously.
"We as a caucus owe it to Democrats across country and our constituents to look back and see, 'how did we get ourselves into this situation?’” Gallego told congressional reporters ahead of the final government funding vote.
The military veteran likens it to what he did as a soldier.
"It's the same thing we did in the Marines, right? Whenever we went into combat or saw combat, we would stop at the end and say, 'What happened?' 'What proceeded to cause this reaction?' 'Did we act directly?'” Gallego said. “'Could we do better?' and 'in the future, what did we learn?'"
What have Democrats learned? It’s not as clear as what Republicans are taking away from their last-minute victory.
“It's outrageous”
Over in the GOP, Republicans are almost giddy.
Skeptical pundits, cynical congressional correspondents and even many Republicans never imagined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could muster enough votes within his highly divided conference to fund the federal government.
Once Johnson rallied his Republican troops and the House left town, Democrats were boxed in.
“Is the precedent from this that whatever Speaker Johnson and House Republicans can pass — if they can all band together — then it becomes law?” Raw Story asked. “No one really thought they would even make it out of the House, and it seems like that's where your party got power?”
“Once the House showed that they could pass the CR with Republican votes, the die was cast,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) told Raw Story.
Schumer maintains he was left with only a few bad options to choose from.
“He understands that if he allows the most liberal voices of this conference to shut down the government, he will have title to this shutdown,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told Raw Story. “Which would be one of the first times Democrats ever get title to it, and I think he's wise enough to know that.”
The blowback was so intense, Schumer was forced to do damage control by hopping on CNN and MSNBC to defend his actions — and the lack thereof — but even that backfired after he called Republicans ‘b—---ds’ during a cable interview, which he was later forced to apologize for.
Other Senate Democrats who followed Schumer’s lead have been facing a similar fallout, which is why they’ve been scrambling as they attempt to change the narrative.
"I am not supporting the shutdown. It would give Donald Trump and an elected billionaire more authority to pick and choose," Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told reporters at the Capitol before she voted to advance the funding bill. "He can cherry pick which agencies that he wants to open. He can cherry pick who gets paid, who gets fired, who gets their job back. It's outrageous."
Cortez Masto also maintains a shutdown could have crippled America’s already ailing economy.
"Our economy is in freefall because of him," Cortez Masto said. “A government shutdown, it would cost the economy billions of dollars.”
“Are you worried about a new precedent being set?” Raw Story asked.
Cortez Masto heard the question. She didn’t reply.
“Let's put the focus back on the wrongdoers”
Veteran Democratic members of Congress deny the sky is falling. They say, as painful as it may be to witness, the diverse Democratic Party is used to party infighting. They say this too shall pass.
“There's, I'm afraid, gonna be some unfortunate bloodletting and recrimination for a while, which we need rapidly to move beyond,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told Raw Story. “Let's put the focus back on the wrongdoers here, which are Trump and Musk.”
“And you're not worried that this Democratic civil war blows up?” Raw Story pressed.
“Better not,” Whitehouse said.
Most Senate Democrats who vehemently opposed the final Republican government funding bill are defending their colleagues who helped advance the GOP measure because they were only presented with bad options.
“The Republicans have engineered a Hopson's choice. The CR is absolutely terrible. In fact, it hands Trump enormous authority to do whatever he wants in the budget. But, shutdown is terrible,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told Raw Story. “So it's a brutal choice engineered by the Republicans to put America in a bad position.”
There’s a problem, though. Democrats are locked in the minority, and the next election isn’t for another two years.
“How do you guys get any power leverage going forward?” Raw Story pressed.
“Gotta get more votes,” Welch told Raw Story.
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