Democratic lawmakers are sending a clear signal to leadership this week, reported Politico's Rachel Bade on Tuesday: we don't want to give Trump the votes to keep the government open if it's a blank check for him to keep doing what he's doing.
The move comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) demands a "clean" spending bill that doesn't put any limitations on Trump's dismantling of the civil service, or the powers of tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force that is initiating mass purges of federal workers and gaining access to sensitive taxpayer information.
"House Dem leaders are privately asking members if they're willing to take their DOGE protests all the way to a shutdown. And I'm told they're getting very little pushback," Bade reported. "This isn’t just negotiation posturing. During a recent ranking members meeting, Rosa DeLauro railed against a long-term [continuing spending resolution], barking 'No f--king way!' would Dems support it. Leader Jeffries didn’t push back -- & neither did anyone in the room."
"What’s more, Dems across ideological spectrum are telling leadership that voting for a 'clean' spending bill would be tacitly blessing Musk’s controversial work, and that denying Republicans the votes they’ll need to keep the agencies open would be the lesser evil," wrote Bade.
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One prominent Democratic lawmaker told Politico, “At some point you’ve got to have a goddamn backbone. I am not giving them a blank check until September.”
All the same, this comes with risks for Democrats, chiefly that a protracted government shutdown would suspend pay for the very federal workers Democrats are fighting to protect. For this reason, Democratic leadership has been caught in a dilemma, unsure of exactly how to proceed on whipping the caucus.