In March, Democrats shrank from confrontation under the threat of a government shutdown. Now voters’ growing disenchantment with the government and the unpopularity of the megabill gives Democrats a chance to fight and win as another funding deadline looms.
By demanding action on popular policies, Democrats could execute a delicate maneuver where they avoid blame for a shutdown while benefiting from the negotiations to end it.
Backing off to avoid a shutdown would depress the Democratic base and signal capitulation to an increasingly authoritarian regime.
One instructive precedent comes from the 1995-96 shutdown, when right-wing Republicans took control of both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. A battered Mr. Clinton later pleaded with reporters that he was still “relevant,” which sounds a lot like today’s congressional Democrats.
Yet when the shutdown ended in early 1996, Mr. Clinton had won big. How? Clinton boiled down his dozens of wordy policy positions to what his aides called “M.M.E.E.” — Medicare, Medicaid, education and the environment. Intense focus on those four popular Democratic positions powered Mr. Clinton’s shutdown comeback and his re-election that fall.
Democrats have a big edge on what’s seen as the No. 1 problem in America: affordability. According to a new CBS News poll, a paltry 36 percent of Americans approve of the way the administration is handling inflation.
On health, Democrats should demand an extension of the popular tax credits that make Obamacare more affordable for millions of Americans, which are scheduled to expire next year. They should insist on restoring funding for popular National Institutes of Health grants, particularly for cancer research.
Democrats should insist on the availability of vaccines, a position supported by 78 percent of adults in a recent NBC News poll.
On tariffs, Democrats should demand that almost all tariffs be approved by Congress/
Democrats should demand the restoration of Mr. Trump’s $500 million cuts in aid to local law enforcement and fund thousands of new officers while they’re at it. They could effectively argue that it’s better to spend money preventing crime than having troops pick up cigarette butts on the National Mal
All of this could be pursued while establishing that the president cannot rescind appropriations without congressional approval, including a filibuster-proof Senate vote.
While a CBS News poll shows 47 percent approve of his “goals,” only 37 percent like his “approach.” That doesn’t bode well for his management of a shutdown.
And if Mr. Trump vetoes the appropriations bill, extending the shutdown, he’ll just tick off the millions of Americans who use government services in hundreds of ways, further weakening Republicans heading into the midterms.
Democrats should not deter from at least trying to do their duty. They should heed the advice that the retired Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. offered to Roosevelt when he took office in 1933, amid a crisis of democracy: “Form your battalion and fight!”
Source: New York Times
