After days of dithering, Senate Democrats finally faced a vote they had been dreading: side with the GOP to pass an ideologically unpalatable continuing resolution (CR) or oppose it and trigger a government shutdown. To pass the House stopgap spending bill, Senate Republicans – sans Rand Paul of Kentucky – needed eight Democrats to cross the aisle and invoke cloture. They got ten. So the government gets to keep on rolling at more or less the current funding levels. But where does that leave the Democratic defectors?
The Lesser of Two “Evils”
By Thursday evening, a few Senate Democrats seemed resigned to supporting the House GOP’s continuing resolution as the lesser evil, so to speak. “For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech. “But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” the New York Democrat concluded.
On Tuesday, March 11, the House GOP passed their continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of September. All Republicans but one voted in support of the bill, which was crafted without any input from lawmakers across the aisle, and all Democrats but one opposed it.
When the Senate vote came around on Friday, March 14, ten Democrats broke from the rest of the party to help Republicans invoke cloture and bring the spending package to a final vote. Sens. Chuck Schumer (NY), Dick Durbin (IL), John Fetterman (PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Maggie Hassan (NH), Angus King (ME), Gary Peters (MI), Brian Schatz (HI), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), and Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) joined every Republican but Sen. Rand Paul to invoke cloture 62-38.
Liberty Nation News pointed out earlier in the day that Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) suggested his party might squeeze out some concessions in the amendment process. They did not – and he did not vote for either the cloture motion or the legislation’s final passage.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) proposed an amendment to create exceptions for certain rescissions. It failed exactly along party lines, with all 53 Republicans shooting it down. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) then suggested an amendment to make it harder to fire veteran federal employees and to track all such terminations. It, too, died 47-53. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined the Democrats in an attempt to prohibit the use of any appropriated money by DOGE, but that effort still failed 48-52. Sen. Paul then proposed an amendment of his own, hoping to reduce the amount of money the package earmarked for USAID. He won the support of 26 of his fellow Republicans – about half the caucus, in total – but ultimately lost the vote 27-73.
When the final vote came, two Democrats (Sens. Fetterman and Shaheen) voted with the Republicans to pass the bill despite no Democratic support being necessary after cloture. Sen. Paul voted with the remaining Democrats in opposition to the bill, but even without him, Republicans had the majority they needed.
Democrats in Disarray
The House GOP passed its bill without any support or input from the chamber’s Democrats, who stood unified against it. And while all but two Senate Democrats voted against the final passage, all ten who voted in support of cloture to bring the total above the 60-vote threshold are the ones to either thank or blame – depending on one’s perspective – for the legislation’s success.
President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to thank them, and Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville praised Sen. Fetterman as “the only leader out there that’s speaking common sense.” But for the remaining 38 Democrats in the Senate and their comrades in the House, who were undivided in opposition, it’s definitely blame.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Thursday night that Schumer announcing he would support the CR was a “huge slap in the face.” There’s a “wide sense of betrayal” over it in the Democratic Party, she insisted.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said passing the bill gives President Trump and Elon Musk “a blank check to spend your taxpayer money however they want.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) declared it would “literally take food out of the mouths of hungry children.” Literally!
The Price of Politics
In politics, there’s always a price, regardless of which side one chooses. Schumer and his fellows who split off from the party stance had very few options. If the government did shut down, it may have given President Trump and Republicans a chance to determine what gets reopened and when – effectively granting them more power to carry on the DOGE mission.
One must consider the optics as well. Democrats who vote in support of a GOP-crafted CR are seen as traitors to the party, while those who stand their ground are the stalwarts, the heroes. Unless, of course, enough of them had resisted to kill the CR. Had that happened, the “loyalists” who oppose the GOP at any cost might instead be seen as so unwilling to bend they’d rather break the government instead. Will these ten turncoats face the wrath of the electorate? That’s hardly an issue for those not running for re-election, like Jeanne Shaheen and Gary Peters. In any case, what would likely inspire more ire – voting for a Republican CR or failing to fund the government? When was the last time anyone heard the average voter – on either end of the political spectrum – complain about their representative’s or senator’s vote on a CR?
Of course, the shutdown was averted, so the remainder of congressional Democrats can afford their outrage. They can lambast Schumer and the others, comfortable in the knowledge that everything will be business as usual come Monday, and ignore the fact that it’s only true because of the ten lawmakers who are the very objects of their ire.
