Did Schumer Bend The Knee?

Democrats lost the shutdown war. They declared for weeks they would not back any funding bill without a bipartisan agreement to protect so-called Dreamers. As Day Three of a government shutdown dawned, Democrats folded like a cheap suit voting to reopen the government.

The White House labeled the government closure the “Schumer Shutdown” sending the Democrats into a bit of a panic.  The label stuck and the stench of fear clung to them like a skunk had sprayed them as the New York Times and the Associated Press blamed them for shuttering the government.

What did the Democrats get out of the shutdown?  Not a damned thing.  President Trump has managed to show Republicans how to show some spine and in so doing they, I strongly believe, have managed to erase some of the stigma of past shutdowns.

“Today's cave by Senate Democrats—led by weak-kneed, right-of-center Democrats—is why people don’t believe the Democratic Party stands for anything,” said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “These weak Democrats hurt the party brand for everyone and make it harder to elect Democrats everywhere in 2018.”

Oh, dear Stephanie. The Night King called for Schumer to bend the knee or he would destroy him.  Senator Schumer’s formal act of submission was a glorious sight to behold.  Crying Chuck will be treated with leniency, but there will be no trust in this lying 10 lb. blivet in a 5 lb. sack.

I tweeted this to Sen. Schumer early this morning:

@SenSchumer If this is what you’re asking true citizens of the United States to do you are egregiously mistaken senator. pic.twitter.com/4JROUqgxVL

— PoliticalClownParade (@PoliticalClownP) January 22, 2018

And now for some comedy gold I present disgraced poodle, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz:

Dem spin on the shutdown is hilarious today. Brooke Baldwin asks DWS to name one thing Dems got to justify shutting down the government:

"The potential for momentum." pic.twitter.com/JtlhB3SHI6

— Eric Hartmane (@erichartmane) January 22, 2018

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of Evil Bloggerlady.  We thank her for linking to this post. 

Schumer Shutdown: The State Of Play

After a continuing resolution to keep the government open was passed in December of 2017, Democrats signaled they would not support future spending bills, even clean ones, until the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) were addressed. FISA is a done deal. CHIP was funded for six years with the House spending bill that passed on January 18th and DACA permits won’t expire until March 5th. 

President Trump issued a six-month enforcement delay on DACA when he decided to wind down the program gradually last September, citing the Obama-era program as constitutionally questionable. The delay was meant for Congress to get the DACA legislation right. 

The mantra from the Left when the government shutdown became effective was Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate.  The Senate make-up is comprised of 51 Republicans, 47 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with the Democrats.  The Democrats do not control the Senate, but they can obstruct any and all bills due to the 60-vote threshold required to pass legislation.  Majority Leader McConnell asked to take up the Continuing Resolution that would have prevented the shutdown, but Sen. Schumer objected.

During the 2013 debt ceiling negotiations, Sen. Schumer noted tying immigration to budgetary matters was an exercise in chaos. “You know, we could do the same thing on immigration. We believe strongly in immigration reform. We could say, ‘We’re shutting down the government, we’re not gonna raise the debt ceiling, until you pass immigration reform.’ It would be governmental chaos.”

As Congressional leaders and White House officials ran around Capitol Hill like chickens with their heads cut off during a rare Saturday session, Chuck Schumer spoke with a poster strategically placed in the background as he spoke from the floor.  The poster read:  Trump Shutdown.

Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) spoke from the well of the House with a poster behind him as well which had a photo of Schumer and his 2013 quote:  “A government shutdown is the politics of idiocy, of confrontation, of paralysis.”  This rankled the Democrats who objected to the poster’s presence on the floor.  There was a vote and The Great Poster War of 2018 was settled allowing Byrne to continue his speech.

On Saturday evening, McConnell said he would force another vote on a short-term funding bill at 1 a.m. Monday, unless there's an agreement before then. That will ramp up the pressure on both sides to come up with a deal over the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Twitterverse rightly mocked the Schumer Shutdown.  The graphic above uses an image from the 2009 film The Road.  Within the graphic I took a tweet from Jonah Goldberg I found most amusing.  His tweet was a perfect smackdown of a tweet from CNN’s Jim Acosta lamenting a “completely empty” snack machine in the White House.

5:55 in DC. Dusk falls. GAO and CBO have devastated the Botanical Garden with their pitiless battle for control over the Rayburn Office Building. Corpses lie amidst shattered glass, illuminated by the burning piles of draft legislation. Look away, someone says, but you cannot.

— (((Megan McArdle))) (@asymmetricinfo) January 20, 2018

Democrats Overplayed Their Hand In Shutting Down The Government

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell castigated Democrats from the Senate floor saying Democrats forced a "completely avoidable" shutdown. "What we have just witnessed on the floor was a cynical decision by Senate Democrats to shove aside millions of Americans for the sake of irresponsible political games." 

“This is completely unfair and uncompassionate for my Democratic colleagues to filibuster government funding, harm our troops and jeopardize health coverage for 9 million children (CHIP) because extreme elements of their base want illegal immigration to crowd out every other priority,” McConnell said.

Only five Democrats voted to advance the bill:  West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and newly elected Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama.

Republicans who broke ranks by voting against the Continuing Resolution to keep the government open were Rand Paul of Kentucky, Little Miss Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Utah’s Mike Lee and Jeff “Nutcake” Flake of Arizona.  John McCain was absent while battling brain cancer.

Blame properly assigned pic.twitter.com/1EpVTNd0VG

— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) January 20, 2018

When even the "Old Gray Lady" is calling out Senate Dems for shutting down the government, you know the #SchumerShutdown is a total disaster. https://t.co/vY7Yae4N7M

— Josh Kivett (@JoshKivett) January 20, 2018

We got a government shutdown and progressives cancelling their New York Times subscriptions on the same day.https://t.co/j5OW8yBfG5

— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 20, 2018

CNN’s Martin Savage conducted a roundtable interview with five Democrats from Youngstown, Ohio. Each of them crossed party lines to vote for President Trump in 2016.

Savage’s questions focused on the voters’ opinions of his first year in office. The responses from the diverse group of voters left the interviewer’s jaw on the floor and serves as further evidence a majority of Americans do not agree with shuttering the government over the DACA program.

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of Pirate’s Cove.  We are grateful to the Admiral for linking to this post.