Democrats ‘lost the shutdown’ but attack the GOP with requests for more spending
While the polling on the government shutdown suggested that Democrats were poised to benefit politically from the latest battle in Washington, it was the American people who spoke and sent a different tune to their leaders.
All but 16 of their 48 Democratic senators voted to reopen the government with a three-week continuing resolution and put an end to the “Schumer Shutdown” with a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that they would get a fair hearing in their efforts to extend the DACA immigration program.
CNN’s analysis blamed the 2018 midterm elections and 10 Senators who face tough battles in Trump territory: “…the shutdown was rapidly being painted as the Democratic Party taking their ball and going home because Republicans wouldn’t agree to a deal for citizenship for undocumented immigrants.”
New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker broke away from other Dems, safe from opposition in their liberal state, and voted against the move.
“Nothing in this legislation gives me any confidence that in three weeks Congress won’t end up exactly where we are today,” Menendez said in a statement. “I would have much preferred a two-day, three-day or even week-long extension that forced Democrats and Republicans to stay in Washington and negotiate.”
Booker ignored the 60 vote requirement with his remarks.
“President Trump and Republicans, who control the White House, the Senate, and the House, have a duty to govern responsibly,” Booker said. “Pitting the most vulnerable in our country against one another is no way to govern. Neither is passing another short-term funding bill.”
The same was true for the Massachusetts Senators.
“I cannot support a budget deal that falls so far short of fulfilling our moral and Constitutional obligation to the American people,” Ed Markey said, as he and Elizabeth Warren also voted ‘no.’ “Without guaranteed long-term funding for community health centers, the opioid crisis, disaster aid, and protections for our DREAMers, I cannot support this legislation.”
Warren tweeted after the vote that Republicans have refused to fix the DACA situation, fund community health centers or help hurricane-affected populations.
“We don’t need new promises. We need new laws,” she tweeted.
Bernie Sanders seemingly ignored the years under President Obama, operating without a budget or a plan.
“I believe that we need comprehensive immigration reform that has to include 800,000 DREAMers, young people who are brought into this country as infants, but it has to go beyond that. But what this shutdown is about is most certainly not just the DREAMers,” the Vermont Senator told NPR.
“We are into almost four months of the fiscal year, and Republicans have not yet given us a budget, an annual budget. And this is not the way you run a $4 trillion entity which is called the United States government. Just the other day, the United States Armed Forces, the Pentagon, the secretary of defense said it is impossible for him to do his job. It is responsible. It is wasteful. It is dangerous for the Pentagon if they don’t have an…”
Other Democrats wasted no time attacking the GOP.
“Once again, Congressional Republicans have decided to kick the can down the road instead of doing the work of governing,” California Rep. Barbara Lee said in a statement.
“We are now almost four months into the new fiscal year, but Republicans refuse to tackle the pressing issues facing Congress and our nation.
“Instead of working on long-standing bipartisan priorities with Democrats, the Republicans continue to align with a volatile President who can’t be trusted to negotiate in good faith and who has repeatedly chosen to pander to his extreme base. Today’s Continuing Resolution, like the four that came before it, fails to restore funding to our community health centers, alleviate the opioid epidemic, or bring desperately-needed assistance to communities destroyed by natural disasters. We also still lack any serious commitment from Speaker Ryan on a vote to protect Dreamers. Any funding measure that ignores these urgent priorities is a non-starter for me.
“The chaos has to end. The American people deserve better than this dysfunctional Republican majority – if Speaker Ryan can’t do the job, then he should find a new line of work.”