Democrats ARE actually doing BETTER because of it….
Trump doesn’t give a shit….
Some Republican’s do…
But MOST are scared of Trump…..
Efforts to blame the Democrats simply are NOT working folks….
President Donald Trump’s complete indifference to the suffering of others has made the situation worse. Earlier this month, he threatened his political opponents with apparent glee: “We’ll be cutting some very popular Democrat programs that aren’t popular with Republicans, frankly, because that’s the way it works. They [Democrats] wanted to do this. So we’ll give them a little taste of their own medicine.”
Now, the White House is refusing to tap into emergency funds to ensure that Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits — formerly known as food stamps — are available to those in need.
“We want to find a bipartisan agreement that reopens the government immediately,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. But he added, “Our position has not changed over the last several weeks.” Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen issued a statement that continued to lay the blame for the shutdown on Republicans: “Trump should spend less time traveling around the world and more time negotiating an end to his shutdown,” said Van Hollen.
Even more revealing was the response from Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, “ The issue that I’ve always been focused on … is a deal, a deal? And the AFGE would not want us to cut a deal and then have Trump fire a bunch of people next week. If we cut a deal and then he did that, they would come to us and say, ‘What the hell were you guys thinking?’”
Van Hollen and Kaine have skin in the game on this issue, since both their states are home to a significant number of federal workers. Moreover, next week, Virginia voters will go to the polls to elect a new governor, attorney general, and state legislators. If Kaine was worried about the political effect that the shutdown is having on his party’s electoral chances, it’s hard to imagine he’d publicly rebuff AFGE.
Kaine’s stance reflects Democrats’ belief that they are winning the shutdown fight — and recent polling backs that up. More Americans blame Trump and the GOP for the shutdown than they do Democrats. After nine months of powerlessness in the face of Trump’s assault on basic democratic norms and congressional prerogatives, Democrats have finally gone toe to toe with him — and they are winning.
There’s no question that the shutdown is catalyzing Democrats. But that doesn’t solve the long-term problem: Democrats have no clear shutdown exit ramp other than caving. As for the Republicans, the president seemingly doesn’t care that the government isn’t fully operating (if anything, he sees it as an opportunity to hurt vulnerable populations and states that vote for Democrats). And his allies in Congress likely won’t make a deal without Trump’s signoff.
Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper summed up well the challengefacing his party, “You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I can’t remember a situation where I felt there were less palatable choices.”…
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From a long-term political standpoint, there is a clear upside to such a move: Health care premiums will rise, voters will get angry, and, more likely than not, Republicans will pay a significant political price next November. The dirty little secret of this shutdown is that the Democrats’ demand of restoring the ACA subsidies is a political gift for Republicans.
But this is always the Democrats’ key dilemma: They care about people.
How long can the party continue to allow the White House to inflict pain on ordinary Americans before the moral qualms are too great to ignore?
It’s a good reminder that in Washington, being the only adult in the room is never easy….
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