Bad Moves
The shutdown is continuing as the Senate won’t vote on anything until Monday. Trump has been claiming that the Democrats are hurting “the troops” by their actions.
Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Lieutenant Colonel US Army (retired) didn’t like Trump’s attitude and comments. She called him a “five-deferment draft dodger” and “Cadet Bone Spurs”. Senator Duckworth lost both her legs when her helicopter was struck by an RPG during her service in Iraq and assumes that she knows a bit more about caring for “the troops” than a real estate developer.
Meanwhile Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) “introduced a resolution that would have secured pay for service members, noting that Trump has been trying to divide the country by invoking the military and putting the blame on Democrats if they were to go unpaid in the event of a shutdown.”
Mitch McConnell objected to the resolution which would have required unanimous consent. So now we know who doesn’t want to pay the troops.
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So the Democrats caved and gave in to another continuing resolution. Not that there was really much choice, I guess. DACA wasn’t going to get passed regardless of what they did, and all that was going to happen was political damage to Democrats if they pushed on.
Of course, all this nonsense is because the Republicans refuse to pass a budget. They have majorities in each house and could pass one, but they spend so much time bickering amongst themselves that they never get around to passing one.
The Dems took CHIP funding off the hostage list until 2024, which is good and helped three of the Senators who are running for re-election – Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida, and Jon Tester of Montana by making Mitch McConnell object to their calls for unanimous consent resolutions to guarantee military pay during any shut down and to extend funding for a few days to avoid a shut down. They now have ready -made campaign ads to show that it was Mitch McConnell and the Republicans who didn’t want to pay the troops or extend teh deadline for funding.
Giving that they really didn’t have any real leverage, I’d score it as a win for Democrats if they can develop and stay on a message.McConnell isn’t going to do anything about DACA, so part of the message will be about the Republican failure to negotiate in good faith, whether in Congress or the White House.
The goal for 2019 is take control of the House and impeach Trump & Pence making Nancy Pelosi the first female President. [I can dream … mostly of the exploding heads at Fox News 👿 ]