Eight Turncoats

Things were going well for the Democrats.  The federal  shutdown was grinding on.  Trump and the MAGA Republicans were getting all the blame for it.  The Democrats in the U.S. Senate initiated a filibuster against debate and a vote on a stopgap spending plan that would give the Republicans everything they want and give the Democrats little if anything - and certainly not extensions of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies - in return.  And as long as the senators in the Democrats remained firm and did not budge Republicans could do nothing about it.

Then eight of them caved.

Late last night, seven Democratic U.S. Senators and one independent voted with all of the Republican U.S. Senators on debating and voting on a deal to end the shutdown  and fund the government until Friday, January 30, 2026. in exchange for the promise on a vote on ACA subsidies some time in the New Year.  The eight turncoats were Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both of Nevada, Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, both of New Hampshire, independent Angus King of Maine, Tim Kaine of Virginia, the increasingly unreliable and untrustworthy John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Richard Durbin of Illinois.  Six of these senators hold seats not up for election in 2026, and the other two, Shaheen and Durbin, are not running for re-election next year.

In other words, there's no way for the rest of the party - or the voters - to get back at any of them right now.

Because what these senators did was not just vote to end the shutdown.  They voted to give the Republicans and Trump a big win by removing a heavy load from their backs . . . and for only the promise of a vote on extending ACA subsidies.  Expecting Republicans to keep and honor their promises is like trying to eat a piece of pie without disturbing the crust underneath.  (Lenin may never have actually said it, but promises are made to be broken like pie crusts.  At least that's certainly the case in Washington.)  A couple of senators said that they did it to reinstate fired federal workers with back pay, but the workers were fired illegally. 

Now the GOP won't have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortunes and use the proverbial club these eight senators just handed them to bash Democrats in the head.  The other Democrats refused to budge.  But now that the block on a Senate vote is lifted, that hardly matters.  

For many people, there is a ninth U.S. Senator of dishonorable mention, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is behind this.   Although Schumer himself voted against a vote on the deal to reopen the government along with the overwhelming majority, he, as the leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, could have asked those eight senators not to agree to the deal, and that obviously never happened.  Some folks even think that Schumer asked these eight senators to vote yes on the deal so he could vote no and keep his hands clean. "He's such a coward," a BlueSky account holder wrote of Schumer on that social-media page, "that he folded and won't even own it."

The government won't reopen just yet.  The deal still has to be voted on and amended, and Democrats get to offer amendments.  Then it goes to the House of Representatives for a final vote, where Democrats are united in opposition to a deal - including House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries - but have no mechanism to block a bill they do not like because they are in the minority. Speaker Mike Johnson will shepherd it through with little trouble at all, and Trump will happily sign it.  It's obvious that the Senate Democrats need new leadership and Schumer must go.

Promises are like pie crusts . . . made to be broken . . . preferably in Chuck Schumer's face. 😡😝  

You got pie in your face . . . ya big disgrace . . . dripping whipped cream all over the place . . ..