All This For Nothing

The above scene from an episode of Married with Children in which Al Bundy haggles over the price of a new car pretty much sums up the events we saw over the weekend.

For our purposes, Al Bundy represents the Democrats and the salesman represents the GOP. And like poor Al, the Dems got taken to the wood shed.

For those of you who were not paying attention to the last five and half weeks, the United States federal government had been shut down. Republicans were looking to pass a clean continuing resolution, i.e. CR, that did not include an extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies which directly impact some 24 million Americans and that are set to expire at the end of the calendar year. Democrats were demanding that any CR include an extension of those subsidies. 

On Saturday, Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor and made a reasonable proposal. Democrats would agree to a CR if Republicans included the extension of the subsidies in it. Republicans rejected it outright. It looked like a stalemate with no end in sight. 

Then on Sunday, eight Senate Democrats signaled that they had reached an agreement with their Republican counterparts to reopen the government without the extension in exchange for Republicans allowing a vote on the extension at a later date, a promise that all furloughed workers would be rehired and receive back pay, and that the Trump administration would not block future SNAP payments to some 45 million Americans. 

Now you understand the Al Bundy reference. 

Understandably, Democrats, particularly progressive Democrats, were outraged over what they believed was a betrayal. And they naturally took their frustrations out on the eight Senate Democrats who negotiated this deal. I must confess, I was one of those people that was fit to be tied. The Dems caved, I texted a friend. 

But the more I review the facts objectively, the more I realize that the real villain in this fiasco isn't the eight Senate Democrats who capitulated; it's the Democratic leadership in both the Senate AND the House. They made promise after promise to their constituents that they knew or had to have known they couldn't keep. 

It's an axiom in politics that when you don't have the majority in either chamber and you don't have control of the Executive branch, i.e., the White House, you ostensibly have zero power; zilch. Promising you can compel concessions from the majority isn't just delusional, it's political malpractice. 

Contrary to what you may have heard, Democrats had no leverage here, none. Jon Stewart said Democrats had the "wind at their back." They could've had a category five hurricane at their back for all the good it would've done. Even in normal times, the odds of Republicans agreeing to an extension of the ACA subsidies would be dubious at best. In the Trump era, well, let's just say I'd have a better shot of being the backup center for the Knicks tonight than Democrats had of getting those subsidies extended, and I'm five foot six.

Knowing that, the question begs, why did leadership put the country through five and a half weeks of torment in which three million workers - half of whom live paycheck to paycheck - were furloughed and millions more went without food stamps, only to cry uncle in the end?

This has been a problem for Democrats since I can remember. Over and over, they over promise and under deliver. And over and over, their base becomes disillusioned. Then when the next election rolls around, and many of them stay home, the Party acts surprised. 

To be clear, Democrats did not get a single concession in this deal. Not one. The vote on the subsidies means nothing if it doesn't pass, and even if it did pass, Mike Johnson has already said he's not going to bring it up in the House. As for the backpay and SNAP payments, they only became relevant because of the shutdown. Republicans were laughing their asses off at their good fortune. 

Well, what about standing up for what you believe in? Isn't protecting 24 million people from seeing their health insurance premiums double or triple worth a fight? That depends on what your definition of a fight is. When one side has an MX missile and the other has a pee-shooter, that isn't a fight, it's a massacre. David might've slayed Goliath with a slingshot in the Bible, but in the real world, we all know what would happen. There'd be pieces of David all over the ground. 

Seriously, who believes for a moment that Trump and the Republicans would do the right thing? This is a president who has no moral compass, is devoid of any shred of decency or empathy, and revels in the pain and suffering of others. Think about it: even as the Senate was voting to reopen the government, he was still at the Supreme Court arguing that he shouldn't have to pay SNAP payments. And his party is in lock step with him. I swear, if he came out in favor of using Monopoly money as legal tender, there'd be a bill fast-tracked through the House by the end of the week.

Can you imagine what would have happened had there been a plane crash that resulted in a loss of life due to insufficient air-traffic controllers? Already the FAA was facing serious challenges because of the shutdown. Flights were being cancelled, travelers were being inconvenienced. If we've learned anything about the American electorate, it's that their compassion runs hand in hand with their patience.

No, the smart play would've been for Schumer and John Thune to hunker down before the shutdown occurred and work out a deal in which Republicans got their clean CR and Democrats got their vote on the subsidies, albeit at a later date. Would that have pissed off the base? Of course it would've. But leading them on the way Democrats did has made a bad situation considerably worse, and just days after the Party had its best elections results since 2020.

Will Rogers said it best: "I am not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat."