I have been (and am) "hard NO" on Blank Check for Musk.
What's strongest case *for* Senate Ds letting it through? Obviously not Schumer op-ed
Try this by Martin Longman/Progress Pond. (It's a pick-your-poison argument.) I'm still "No!" but it's worth reading.
https://www.progresspond.com/2025/03/14/fury-about-the-continuing-resolution-is-misplaced/
What's strongest case *for* Senate Ds letting it through? Obviously not Schumer op-ed
Try this by Martin Longman/Progress Pond. (It's a pick-your-poison argument.) I'm still "No!" but it's worth reading.
https://www.progresspond.com/2025/03/14/fury-about-the-continuing-resolution-is-misplaced/
Comments
I agree with the case my longtime friend EJ Dionne makes in a discussion at the WaPo: that the Dems owed it to the country and their supporters to take a stand. (Disagree with his colleague who said the Dems avoided "taking blame".)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/14/government-shutdown-avert-senate-democrats/
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
What is Trump's superpower? He never gives up, never stops fighting. Democrats refuse to even try unless they feel they can win.
Problem is that Schumer already failed to message, unify caucus, and coordinate w/ House Dems.
The arena in this instance is the Senate. Take it from someone who worked there: Senators are not powerless. 1/2
it's fine to point fingers but everything starts with one's own actions and bedrock principles
in a lapsed world with many bad actors, it's easy to succumb to a frame that's not your own
in this sense self-restraint is actually empowering
It has to be marshaling public
Opinion. Anything else is
This isn't a "messaging" failure. This is political cowardice and
It was a massive, visible failure.
Yes it’s terrible optics to be seen as surrendering, but I think they made the best choice of two bad options. I wish dems were able to communicate that better and I wish the base wasn’t so eager to tear them down.
People are expecting some sort of a montage and then the Dems rally to make everything OK. It's not going to happen.
To quote the West Wing, " It's not the losses that bothers me, it's the games that we don't suit up for that gets to me".
Why is there any confidence that Schumer will not roll over again, and again, and again?
He has proven he will never allow a shut down. So he has already lost any an all leverage in Sept. and beyond.
- Gain at most a 30-day CR, so not a real solution.
- Allow T & M to say Fed layoffs are due to the shutdown, not to their illegal usurpation.
- Set T loose, and that's worse for the country.
- Stifle current lawsuits (true?).
Is “blank check for Musk” meant to the CR or the shut down?
https://fallows.substack.com/p/the-only-practical-check-thats-left
You know how you lose a country in a constitutional crisis? By lying down and not even fucking trying.
Schumer chose complicity.