AOC condemns Chuck Schumer for caving to Republicans on funding bill
AOC condemns Chuck Schumer for caving to Republicans on funding bill
Chuck Schumer supports bill, but AOC and Nancy Pelosi warn against Republican legislation as shutdown looms
Summary
Democratic divisions intensified as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi sharply criticized Chuck Schumer for supporting a Republican-led funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.
AOC called Schumer's decision a "betrayal," urging Senate Democrats to reject the legislation backed by Trump and Elon Musk. Pelosi called the bill a "devastating assault" on working families.
Schumer defended his stance, arguing a shutdown would empower Trump and Musk further.
The controversy sparked suggestions among Democrats that AOC might challenge Schumer in a primary.
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What's still not clear to me is what the plan is if the CR is not passed. Republicans control the overall agenda in Congress. What I fear would happen is Republicans would start to fund the government bit by bit, starting with the bits they like the most.
Then in 3 months, when the Department of Education and other things are still not funded, Republicans can say "See! Democrats wouldn't let us open it. It's all AOC's fault!", and the public would buy it.
If there were a clear path to a better deal by shutting down the government, I'd be all for it. Go ahead, downvote me if you want, but I'm more interested in knowing how I'm wrong about this. If your response is "we need to stop this because it's awful", that's fine, but how does stopping it lead to something better?
Voting no on this CR is not voting for a shutdown. It's voting for a different CR. Voting yes is giving up without a fight and giving Trump whatever he wants. This is the first chance since the election for the Democrats to oppose Trump through official channels, and Schumer rolled over immediately. If they do nothing now, we already have a one-party autocracy.
Appeasing fascists is a time-tested losing strategy. If the choice is between shutdown and give Trump whatever he wants, I think the answer should be clear. Trump is already speed running a federal collapse. Might as well deny him the damage he would do in the interim.
If they wanted a shutdown, they have every ability to make that happen. If a couple of House Republicans opposed it, it would have failed to pass. They didn't because people are going to blame Republicans for it (or at least were before Schumer mucked up the story).
And they can't fund it bit by but. The executive can decide how to allocate remaining funds and order some people to work without pay, but turning stuff back on for the long term takes Congress and the Republicans have a single budget vote this year that can be Republican-only.
Finally, if this was the end conclusion of The Adult In The Room, all of it was true before the House voted. This isn't the end game of a serious thinker, this is Schumer blowing up the game after his colleagues have already taken the risk of voting no across the board. He should be fired for that alone.