Senate Democrats' Choice: Block the Republican Spending Bill or Dissolve Congress

[Passages]

The House’s continuing resolution would effectively hand over spending decisions to Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

by David Dayen March 11, 2025

Democrats were actually quite pleased with the clown show that was Congress in the last two years. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had no ability to pass anything without Democratic votes, as he was simply not in control of the far-right elements of his caucus. Democrats welcomed the perception that they were government’s rescuers, the adults in the room, who would save Johnson’s bacon and functionally control the House.

This is no longer true. Donald Trump’s looming presence has whipped Republicans in line, and Johnson has recognized an important truth: So-called “moderate” Republicans will swallow anything, so he only has to negotiate with the far right, and if he can satisfy them, he’ll win any vote. Such was the case with a partisan seven-month “continuing resolution” that passed the House on Tuesday 217-213, with only one defection by libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who doesn’t really believe in government funding at all. (One Democrat voted for it, Maine Blue Dog Jared Golden.)

It is somewhat remarkable that dozens of House Republicans who have vowed never to pass stopgap bills to fund the government in their political careers caved on this one. But that’s why I put “continuing resolution” in quotes. In reality, this is a hastily arranged partisan Republican budget that achieves much of their anti-government, anti-immigrant, pro-military agenda while paving the way for Trump to nullify whatever spending he deems unworthy. It doesn’t just tilt spending in a far-right direction, it actually abdicates congressional responsibility as the branch of government that makes federal spending decisions.

Yet several Senate Democrats are thinking about passing it anyway.
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-03-11-senate-democrats-block-republican-spending-bill-or-dissolve-congress/

[Walleye]

1. No, no, no! It's very easy just vote. No, they're already trashing the government. What difference does it make if it s

[Think. Again.]

2. I firmly believe...

...the most important part of this vote is for Dems to show a strong, unified OPPOSITION not just to a funding bill that sets spending back to last year's numbers, but to the entire situation we are facing against an extremist government.

[Passages]

3. It should be obvious to the leadership but I am not confident that will happen.

I hope they hear from voters. I have made my voice heard as much as possible.

[Think. Again.]

7. Yes, at the risk of criticizing leadership ..

...I agree that there isn't the unbreakable resistance that is absolutely necessary to stop fascism AND keep our (now gone) standing on the world stage.

With a strong, undeniable resistance shown by non-republicans, we could have kept the respect of the world, but our Dem leaders have now given that up.

[LuvLoogie]

4. Dem leadership has no fire

They will walk out onto the Capitol steps and scold the republicans after they pass their CR. If we ever have another election. I am going to support DEMOCRATS IN DEED. Not footmen. Not appeasers.

Block this shit.

[LymphocyteLover]

5. Good dissection of the Dem arguments on this from Josh Marshall

Here:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/here-are-the-arguments-for-why-senate-ds-should-vote-yes-and-why-theyre-wrong

Long piece but here's the end:
"The reality here is that this isn’t Democrats shutting down anything. Republicans intentionally crafted a bill that ignores literally every Democratic demand. They’re forcing Democrats to either say no or make an abject surrender.
(snip)

Now, as I said, the Bush administration was a great object lesson in how reality will kick your ass. No truism or motto works in every case. Life is mostly a matter of having half a dozen mutually contradictory truisms or life lessons and knowing which to apply in different situations. But there was more insight in this remark than a lot of Democrats were able to understand. And there’s an important truth here. You need to know how power works and how to use it. Because if you can use power effectively you can change where the pieces are on the board. And if you lack that insight you’re condemned to always working within the lines in ways that are confining and ultimately self-defeating. Are you acting and forcing your opponents to react or is it the opposite. In adversarial situations that’s always more than half the game.

For Democrats the path of keeping their heads down means locking themselves into a pattern of perpetual reaction, at least until the next election, a pattern of never taking the initiative. In other words, a pattern of never taking actions that force the other guys to react. It’s possible to use a lot of brainpower to come up with an argument in which that totally makes sense. But can anyone imagine any scenario where the shoe was on the other foot and Democrats needed seven Republican votes in exchange for literally nothing and they found seven who said, “Okay, sure why not?”

It’s literally unimaginable.

The public is already visibly turning against what’s happening. We have lots of evidence for that. Democrats have this one chance to bring the matter to a head, increase the attention on something the public is already angry about. They need to take a real risk in order to change or at least slow the trajectory of the destruction.

[the_liberal_grandpa]

6. Are Democrats a Serious Opposition Party?

If the dems roll over on this then i think they will also vote for the 4 trillion raise in the debt ceiling giving the oligarchs their tax cut without even a whimper.

If these guys were around during the revolution we would all still be speaking with english accents.

I have made my decision not to donate to any dem candidates who have shown weakness when we need strength and leadership.

If they don't fight here then I am afraid I will not be donating to any dem candidates in the next election and may withhold my vote all together as it makes not sense to elect dems who vote with repubs.