"I mean, this is an absolute fail. It's embarrassing, honestly."
Sen. John Fetterman is frustrated.
He isn’t alone: A month-long government shutdown has everyone feeling on edge.
While Congressional Republicans keep trying to pass a clean CR to fund the government at its current levels, Democrats keep refusing to vote for it. They want an extension of pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies which were always supposed to sunset in 2025.
Besides the pain millions of American families are experiencing due to benefit lapses, none.
President Donald Trump has somehow managed to keep U.S. soldiers from experiencing financial hardship due to the shutdown. He is currently exploring ways to extend SNAP benefits, should the shutdown continue.
What are Democrats doing?
Besides pandering to the progressive base, vociferously blaming Donald Trump, fundraising furiously, callously using the American people as leverage, and media grandstanding — not much.
Plenty of Democrats have even been saying the quiet part out loud. Inflicting financial hardship on working families as leverage is a feature — not a bug — of this plan.
“Every day gets better for us,” said House Democratic Party Whip Katherine Clark.
“Of course there will be families that are going to suffer,” admitted House Democratic Party caucus chair Pete Aguilar. “But it is one of the few leverage times we have.”
“If you reopen the government, we lose our leverage,” agreed Sen. Chris Coons.
“Another senior Democratic aide said as long as public perception is in their favor, the party will not concede short of ‘planes falling out of the sky,’” reported CNN.
And on and on.
Sen. John Fetterman, for one, is fed up. Appearing on the CNN news program, State of the Union, over the weekend, Sen. Fetterman explained his thinking to host Jake Trapper.
“As you know, 42 million Americans — including 2 million Pennsylvanians — will not receive food stamp or SNAP benefits this month because funding officially lapsed yesterday,” prompted Mr. Trapper. “The White House says this is the fault of Democrats for shutting down the government. Democrats note that the Trump administration is not dipping into the contingency funds for SNAP, and they think Trump is doing that to pressure Democrats. How do you see it? Who do you blame for this?”
“For me, fundamentally, it’s deeply, deeply distressing to know that 42 million Americans are going to lose their SNAP benefits,” Sen. Fetterman answered. “That’s one of the big reasons why I refuse to shut our government down.”
“And again, I feel like the Democrats really need to own the shutdown,” Fetterman said. “I mean, we’re shutting it down. I know why they claim they’re doing it — because they want to address the tax credits — and I fully support that. I voted for all of our cars — our causes — every single time. But I refuse to put 42 million Americans into that kind of food insecurity.”
“Now, this is all solved by just reopening our government,” Fetterman added. “The people need to be paid. If we are the party that’s fighting for working people, we can’t be the ones shutting it down. Every single union that’s involved in this is now demanding that we reopen. That’s the side I’m on.”
“The four major airlines are also saying we really have to stop this right now,” he complained. “Why would we want to make flying less safe by forcing this kind of situation and making everything that much more stressed? So it’s not something I support, and I don’t want to be involved in it. We need to find a way forward. I do believe we can achieve these tax credits — this is something I support — but this is the wrong tactic. It was wrong when the Republicans did it, and it’s wrong now that we’re driving it.”
“Senators say that bipartisan talks to end this logjam seem to be gaining steam, though an actual agreement is still out of reach as of now,” host Jake Trapper followed up. “Do you know where these bipartisan talks to end the shutdown stand? We’re on day 33 of the shutdown.”
“I sure hope so. I mean, this is an absolute fail. It’s embarrassing, honestly. If we can’t even keep the lights on like this — come on,” Fetterman lamented bitterly. “Federal workers have had to borrow more than a third of a billion dollars just to pay their bills. Those are the kinds of workers that make this country run, and they’re really suffering. And now people can’t count on their SNAP benefits, or on WIC and Head Start. These are the kinds of people I’m fighting for as a Democrat. But right now, it seems like we’re moving against our core values by keeping the government shut down. We’re on day 33 — it’s gone on far too long.”
Fetterman is right: High-minded but ineffectual stunts like the shutdown are why the Democratic Party is losing the working class.
Will Congressional Democrats listen?
(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)