Schumer and Jeffries’ shutdown antics are red meat – Latest News
In the most recent bit of Democratic Party government-shutdown kabuki theater, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries are huffing and puffing over Team Trump’s speak of mass federal firings if Senate Dems use the filibuster to dam Republicans’ two-month stopgap invoice.
In actuality, the Democratic leaders are simply desperately making an attempt to blow up one thing within the title of “stopping Trump” to appease their occasion’s poisonous base.
Republicans don’t need Dem votes to move the short-term spending invoice; they only need enough Democratic senators to refuse to dam a flooring vote.
So far, Schumer’s held his convention collectively in filibustering the measure as he calls for Republicans settle for $1.5 trillion in added health-care subsidies . . . again, merely to keep the federal government funded into November.
That works out to roughly $100 billion a week in blackmail funds.
The newest drama got here Thursday as Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought obtained the ball rolling on a backup plan if Dems do end up Uncle Sam’s lights come Sept. 30: He ordered companies to arrange Reduction in Force plans “to retain the minimal number of employees necessary to carry out statutory functions.”
More From Post Editorial Board
Meaning: A bunch of federal staff might lose their jobs for good come Oct. 1.
Schumer referred to as Vought’s order “an attempt at intimidation”; Jeffries slammed Vought as “a malignant political hack” and insisted Democrats would “not be intimidated.”
Translation: Hey, we’re those making the threats round right here!
Get opinions and commentary from our columnists
Subscribe to our each day Post Opinion publication!
Thanks for signing up!
They’re such phonies; Vought’s transfer was anticipated: Schumer himself cited potential mass firings as a motive he let a earlier GOP-backed funding invoice move in March.
But Chuck’s clever transfer to keep away from triggering a shutdown back then infuriated progressives, who demand that Dems in Congress discover some option to act in opposition to Orange Man — or a minimum of to behave out.
Hence the present drama, which can but finish subsequent week if 10 Senate Democrats merely refuse to assist the subsequent filibuster.
The federal staff at risk of dropping their jobs are more than likely Democrats themselves, however privileged progressives don’t care: They need some variety of chaos in protest of Trump’s existence.
If they don’t get a shutdown, they’ll probably have a meltdown.
From the summer time riots in Los Angeles to the firebombings of Tesla dealerships and even this week’s lethal assault on a Dallas ICE facility, the left has made crystal-clear that it desires one thing huge to burn.
Maybe Schumer and Jeffries are privately hoping moderates will forestall a shutdown; perhaps they determine the spectacle of authorities closure will appease their base enough that it doesn’t get even more damaging.
After years of humoring the far-left whack jobs to keep the occasion collectively, they appear to assume they’re merely caught using the tiger.
