Democrats cave in and save the Trump administration from shutdown

WashingtonThe possibility of a government shutdown under Donald Trump's new administration has been dashed by the Democrats. The Republican-sponsored bill to fund the government through September 30 had sparked strong internal divisions within the party, but the Democrats ultimately caved in to the Senate vote and saved the Trump administration from a shutdown. The image of the ten Democrats who have already approved the legislative initiative in the initial process has been a testament to the party's lack of power to confront Trump within the legislature.

For days, the Democrats had been sitting on a chair with spikes. If they led the Trump administration to a government shutdown, the context was ripe for the president to let those programs he doesn't care about die while he worked to fund his ultra-right agenda through other legislative actions. If the Democrats sided with the Republicans and gave in, they would have approved a budget that would make it even easier for the Republican and Elon Musk to continue cutting within the administration.

Finally, ten Democrats who believed they were choosing the lesser of two evils have allowed the draft budget to be passed in a previous vote that required a qualified majority. Not only have they helped reach the 60-vote threshold, but they have surpassed it by making the counter of the Yeah reached 62. Once the document was put to a final vote, which only required a simple majority, seven of the ten Democrats who had given in voted against it in a symbolic but ineffective gesture to appease the anger of their supporters. On the other hand, two Democrats also voted in favor of approving the budget. The result was 54 votes in favor and 46 against. The only dissenting voice heard within the Trumpist ranks was that of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who voted against the interests of his own party.

The text approved this Friday, which now requires the president's signature, will maintain last year's spending level unchanged, although it will allocate an additional $6 billion for defense. To compensate, $13 billion will be cut from other budget items. Furthermore, it does not establish guidelines for continuing to fund existing programs that could be left without new funding because they are not priorities for the new administration.

Speeding up deportations

The text also includes a provision that leaves lawmakers powerless to force a vote to overrule the president's power to impose tariffs and provides an additional $485 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help expedite their deportations. In addition, the bill also provides for a cut of more than $1 billion from Washington, D.C.'s budget for the remainder of the fiscal year. Just this Friday, in an appearance from the Justice Department hours earlier, Trump announced that he would use the Commerce Department building in Washington to house offices for the FBI in order to have a "crime-free capital." The cuts planned in the legislative text approved by the Senate will likely entail a reduction in personnel, including police officers.

One of the ten Democrats who helped pass the text was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. On Thursday, after tense discussions with the other members of the Democratic caucus, he announced that he would vote in favor of processing the legislative initiative. Schumer publicly broke with his party's position shortly before the midnight Friday deadline, though by Wednesday afternoon he had refused to support it because the text was too "partisan." The New York senator argued that allowing a shutdown would give even more power to Trump and Elon Musk in their campaign to dismantle the government. Schumer argued that, in the event of a government shutdown, Trump could decide "to cherry-pick which parts of the government to reopen during an extended shutdown."

Despite being the bane of any administration, a government shutdown could prove to be favorable to Musk and Trump amid efforts to dismantle the government. In fact, the Democrat believed that being able to selectively fund agencies would make it easier for Trump to let "other vital services he doesn't like die." A government shutdown means that non-essential federal workers are furloughed and sent home until a budget is passed, while essential workers continue to work without pay until the government reopens. Since 2019, the government shutdown has retroactively applied to federal workers' salaries, and they are reimbursed once the shutdown is lifted. The new administration has been placing federal workers on administrative leave. motu proprio while looking for a way to dismiss the officials.

Some voices within the Democratic Party had already come out to criticize Schumer's decision. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN that it would be a "mistake" for the Democrat not to block the bill. "I hope that the people who are considering it will reconsider," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I really hope so. I don't think that's what New Yorkers want." Schumer is also a congressman from New York.

For other figures like Schumer, what happened today has meant choosing the lesser of two evils. "What everyone is saying is that either outcome is terrible," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said before the vote. "This president has put us in a position where, either way, constituents are going to be affected, and severely affected. So people have to decide which is the lesser of two evils."

The Democrats have avoided adding fuel to the fire amid the chaos unleashed by Musk's cutbacks, but at the same time they have become complicit in the Trump administration's future attacks on the US administration. The resulting picture is not the one a party still mired in post-election paralysis and in need of finding a way to mount real opposition wants, especially if it wants to win back votes ahead of the midterm elections.