Democrats play blame game with GOP on looming government shutdown
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US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a rally hosted by the American Federation of Government Employees to "save the civil service" outside of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Feb. 11. Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images
Democrats are signaling they won't bail out Republicans as yet another government funding deadline looms — and with a GOP trifecta in Washington, some say it won't be their fault if the government goes dark.
Why it matters: If past negotiations are an indicator of how the vote to stave off the March 14 shutdown deadline will go, the GOP will almost certainly need Democratic support.
- The strategy some key Democrats have floated — and that is being encouraged by grassroots groups — is to let the GOP collapse if it can't reach an internal consensus.
- "Republicans have consistently shut down the government in the past," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "It would be no surprise if they do just that this time around."
- "It is up to them [Republicans] to keep that government running," Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on CNN's "State of the Union." "They better learn how to run it because right now, it is pure chaos."
As a GOP-controlled Congress empowers President Trump's sweeping executive actions, the Democratic arsenal has been stripped of many of its most powerful weapons.
- But amid budget talks, some Democrats have expressed willingness to take a stand against Elon Musk-led shifts with their most basic tool: their vote.
What they're saying: "There's a Republican president, a Republican House and a Republican Senate," Jeffries said Sunday. "They have a responsibility to make sure that government remains open and can function."
- But Jeffries noted the GOP budget blueprint that just passed the House Budget Committee on a party-line vote is a "a non-starter" for Democrats — a stance he predicts will persist "because it's out of control."
Zoom out: Klobuchar echoed her Democratic colleague, saying it's "not Democrats who are going to shut this government down."
- But pressed whether she was signaling a no vote, Klobuchar pushed back, saying, "What we are doing is trying to work with them to get a budget together."
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said on "Fox News Sunday" that the GOP is "having a hard time getting on the same page" amid "confusion" between House and Senate Republicans, whose competing budget proposals must be identical to move forward with reconciliation.
- Negotiations between GOP hardliners and leadership hit a friction point over how deep spending cuts should go before the plan was revealed, Axios' Erin Doherty reported.
Yes, but: Kaine emphasized he would never use a shutdown as "a threat."
- "I don't like the fact that Donald Trump is shutting government down as we speak," referencing staggering dramatic layoffs throughout federal agencies that some experts say are legally dubious.
- He contended Trump's workforce reductions are a "shutdown unauthorized by Congress." But he repeated: "I don't think we should be contemplating shutdown."
The big picture: The exact details on what lawmakers think the party should be demanding vary, Axios' Andrew Solender reports. But there's harmony on one key factor: Democrats want assurances that the Trump team will stick to whatever spending law Congress passes.
- Jeffries, in a letter to colleagues earlier this month, wrote that he had made it clear to GOP leadership that "any effort to steal taxpayer money from the American people ... must be choked off in the upcoming government funding bill, if not sooner."
- Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) questioned: "How do you make a deal with a guy who says 'I don't have to abide by the deal'?"
Go deeper: Democratic senator open to government shutdown as protest of Trump moves
