JimofPennsylvan
Platinum Member
- Jun 6, 2007
- 904
- 596
- 910
It seems like the vast majority of the Democrat Party think that Senator Chuck Schumer and his gang of eight fellow Senate Democrats who paved the way for the Republican Appropriations bill to pass the Senate yesterday are traitors that ruined the Democrat Party's effort to stop President Donald Trump from dismantling the Federal government and thus hurt the Democrat Party's reputation as an alternative Party for the voters that strongly don't like what is going on with this DOGE activity. These Democrats are spot on, in modern times the country has not seen a greater betrayal by party leadership in a Chamber of Congress to the mission of their Party! What is informative is that if you look into these traitors lives you can see the signs that these were the type of representatives that when up against it there was a good chance they would choose the side of special interests! The cover that these "Trump-helping" Democrats try to claim is that if they didn't help pass the Republican Appropriation bill they would have caused this terribly painful shut down of the government and Donald Trump and Elon Musk would have cut dramatically more government employees than they otherwise would! This viewpoint is too manipulated, first in a shutdown one really critical thing is that federal employees would not get paid and federal employees get paid on Fridays and after shutdowns the Federal government always pays federal employees retroactively which means Congress really had to the middle of next week to pass the appropriation bill to stop any break in federal workers getting a pay check; and even if House Republicans largely left town they could be called back in that time frame plus if a bipartisan deal was reached Democrats would largely be passing it in the House and if I recall correctly Speaker Johnson passed a prior CR with a lot of his conference members vacant. It is really rather scary the values these "Trump Helping" Democrats displayed because based on the standards they followed here if you have a Republican President who is a reckless and irresponsible Federal spending cutter and that President's Party controls both chambers of Congress the Democrat Party cannot block a budget bill no matter how bad it is because of the fear of extreme cutting from that President during an ensuing shut down; those are very foolish values or standards! These errant Democrats also failed to consider that the Democrats could have put a very attractive appropriations bill (CR) on the table to resolve the shut down you start with having the Republicans honor the very fair deal Speaker McCarthy cut with President Biden for FY2025 you raise non-defense spending 1% over the FY 2024 level and on defense spending and border/immigration enforcement spending you give the Republicans want they put in their appropriation bill I don't know the exact figure off-hand but the total was less than fifteen billion dollars; but, you don't give President Trump the power to sequester any spending he wants you don't relinquish the Congress's Constitutional power over the nation's purse. There would have been enormous public pressure on the Republicans in Congress to accept that deal because it would have been a great deal for them and although President Trump doesn't normally succumb to public pressure it would have been difficult for him to resist the deal because he is currently trying to implement his tariff agenda on the U.S, economy which is causing enormous turmoil in the economy and a prolonged government shutdown would cause added recession and equity market pressure which a smart Donald Trump would have wanted to avoid!
It is really hard to put into words the harm these "Trump Helping" Democrats did in facilitating the passing of this Republican Appropriation bill because heretofore federal employees terminated in the Trump Administration's dismantling of the federal government and states and counties denied federal grant money in the DOGE cutting could run to Federal Court and get some relief by the Judge ruling that the Trump administration overstepped its bounds it violated Congressional authority embodied in the existing appropriation law. This Federal Court option is now largely eliminated because what this Republican Appropriations law did is it not only gave the President the power to sequester any Congressional appropriation which means to cancel that appropriation it also made the appropriation law such that there was an automatic amendment to that law once the sequestration was made to reflect the sequestration; so the victims here have no authority (appropriation law) to ask the Federal Judge to follow to reverse the harm inflicted upon them. At this point it looks like President Trump will be able to act like a King on federal spending until the new Fiscal Year starts on October 1 when this Republican laws authority largely ends and there is nothing anyone can do about it! Democrat and anti-King Trump Americans may have one other option which is have the Federal courts rule this Republican Appropriation law unconstitutional and although I am not a constitutional lawyer so I can't offer an expert opinion it seems on the surface that two constitutional issues lie with this piece of legislation. If the United States Supreme Court finds this legislation violated the U.S. Constitution in either of these two areas of course the respective provisions in the appropriation law would be voided and have no effect but it may be the case that the U.S. Supreme Court of course giving Congress and President time to enact replacement legislation may find that because a provision of the law is unconstitutional the whole law should be found unconstitutional in that case the Democrats would get a do over on the Appropriation bill and hopefully would stay united and stop the Republicans irresponsible dismantling of our government! These are the two areas where it seems a constitutional issue lies; first with the Republican's appropriation law which gives the President the power to sequester appropriations and to further thereby amend the appropriation law at will it seems to contravene Article one of the Constitution which clearly gives the power to make appropriations solely to Congress! Secondly, the Constitution not only gives the power to make appropriations solely to Congress but it mandates that the law executing that power must be proper. A reasonable person should conclude that it is not proper for a Congress in an appropriation bill for FY 2025 to making appropriations in only two areas for FY 2026 which this Republican bill does in the area of Medicaid funding and in the area of Veterans care! Based on the Republicans standard here of in an appropriation bill doing appropriations for a future year, that is, multiple years what is to stop a Congress in which the same Party controls both chambers of Congress and the White House and whose President is term limited and the other Party has a very popular Politician who is very likely to win the next Presidential election from in the last year of the current President's term in that year's appropriation bill making the appropriation for the next four fiscal years to make it hard for the next President to cut spending during his term. It seems with the Republican standard here you get a bad and unjust result!
Another option would be if the Republicans fail to get their Reconciliation bill through Congress and enacted into law by June of this year with provisions lifting the debt ceiling where in that case the Republican leadership would have to turn to the Democrats to lift the Debt ceiling. Of course the Democrat leadership could condition their help to the withdraw of this provision in the current appropriation bill giving Trump the power of sequestration and to practically amend the appropriation law but I don't think that is a good idea because if you set something as a condition than you have to be prepared to walk away if you don't get it and walking away here means causing a U.S. Treasury default with potentially catastrophic consequences and the harm from this power given to Trump can be fixed by replacing the bad budget cuts in future appropriation bills. Trump is proving himself not trustworthy to handle the financial reins of the country so in the debt ceiling negotiations Democrats should negotiate Fiscal Year spending levels for each of the next four fiscal years and spending by Departments absent agreed upon by Democrat spending cuts (Democrats should really commit to working with Republicans to cut a trillion and a half spending over the next ten years because America's current budget deficits is driving up interest rates and hurting ordinary people across the board and the only way to reverse this and stop it from getting worse is to cut some sizeable spending) and no power of sequestration and to amend appropriation laws will be given to the President in the respective appropriation bills and any other bills for the next four years. Moreover, the Democrats should set as a needed term extending the 2017 tax cuts through 2029 (you leave this to Republicans you are going to get a lot of irresponsible and just plain bad tax cuts plus irresponsible spending cuts) and of course box the Republicans in from doing bad tax cuts and bad spending cuts in how much you raise the debt ceiling over the next four years.
I am not a Democrat so I don't believe it is my place to comment on consequences if any that these nine "Trump helping" Democrat Senators should be subjected to over their betrayal of the Democrat Party. Though as s citizen I believe I have every right to comment on the behavior of members of Congress which are impacting the country of America so in that light I make the following observations. Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Dick Durbin at their core are representatives that have and will sell out America and ordinary Americans who depend on the well being of this country. Both of these guys have been in Democrat leadership for decades and they are as smart as a representative can be and regularly put the game of politics and the interests of the establishment over the interests of the entirety of the American people. These guys can talk a great game they can sound like they are the most idealistic representatives but if you look at the details of their track record they are swamp creatures their priority is special interests, namely in part, the wealthy and big business! Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Gary Peters and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto have made long careers of being part of the political establishment they have been elected officials for decades because they are prepared to give fidelity to the entity that is responsible for putting them in their seats the political establishment which means the money interests which allows the establishment to hold onto power. Senators Maggie Hassan and Senator Jeanne Shaheen are both Senators from the state of New Hampshire and that fact is as telling as any fact could be. In New Hampshire the Governor, State Senators and State House members all only have two year terms and all Legislature members are only paid $100 a year salary which largely leaves the jobs to wealthy people and retirees and the House has four hundred members (God couldn't coalesce such a large group); this set-up of the government makes it clear the government of NH is run by the political establishment. New Hampshire has no sales tax, no income tax and one of the highest property taxes in the nation; clearly the political establishment is all about protecting the interests of the wealthy (New Hampshire's state motto should be changed to: Live is for the Wealthy, Die is for the Poor or a Facsimile Of Such". It should be a surprise to no one that such a state's political establishment would produce Democrat Senators that when times get really tough they would cave and abdicate Congressional power and give to the President the power to control spending so that he can give undue tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations. Senator John Fetterman, you pitiable soul you; Senator Fetterman fancies himself as a champion of blue collar workers. Well many blue collar workers are not highly educated ( I am not saying they are not highly intelligent) they haven't received education beyond high school and they have a reputation of not being educated; Senator Fetterman needs to learn just because you represent them doesn't mean you have to act like them. Senator Fetterman's spiel like the choice was between a shutdown where people get really hurt or accepting a Republican bad bill was the only choices presented; an educated analysis would have concluded it wasn't such a clear choice a compromise had a chance and the principles involved warranted a fight! Senator Fetterman needs to hire some additional staff with the job qualification of have wisdom so maybe such will rub off on him!
It is really hard to put into words the harm these "Trump Helping" Democrats did in facilitating the passing of this Republican Appropriation bill because heretofore federal employees terminated in the Trump Administration's dismantling of the federal government and states and counties denied federal grant money in the DOGE cutting could run to Federal Court and get some relief by the Judge ruling that the Trump administration overstepped its bounds it violated Congressional authority embodied in the existing appropriation law. This Federal Court option is now largely eliminated because what this Republican Appropriations law did is it not only gave the President the power to sequester any Congressional appropriation which means to cancel that appropriation it also made the appropriation law such that there was an automatic amendment to that law once the sequestration was made to reflect the sequestration; so the victims here have no authority (appropriation law) to ask the Federal Judge to follow to reverse the harm inflicted upon them. At this point it looks like President Trump will be able to act like a King on federal spending until the new Fiscal Year starts on October 1 when this Republican laws authority largely ends and there is nothing anyone can do about it! Democrat and anti-King Trump Americans may have one other option which is have the Federal courts rule this Republican Appropriation law unconstitutional and although I am not a constitutional lawyer so I can't offer an expert opinion it seems on the surface that two constitutional issues lie with this piece of legislation. If the United States Supreme Court finds this legislation violated the U.S. Constitution in either of these two areas of course the respective provisions in the appropriation law would be voided and have no effect but it may be the case that the U.S. Supreme Court of course giving Congress and President time to enact replacement legislation may find that because a provision of the law is unconstitutional the whole law should be found unconstitutional in that case the Democrats would get a do over on the Appropriation bill and hopefully would stay united and stop the Republicans irresponsible dismantling of our government! These are the two areas where it seems a constitutional issue lies; first with the Republican's appropriation law which gives the President the power to sequester appropriations and to further thereby amend the appropriation law at will it seems to contravene Article one of the Constitution which clearly gives the power to make appropriations solely to Congress! Secondly, the Constitution not only gives the power to make appropriations solely to Congress but it mandates that the law executing that power must be proper. A reasonable person should conclude that it is not proper for a Congress in an appropriation bill for FY 2025 to making appropriations in only two areas for FY 2026 which this Republican bill does in the area of Medicaid funding and in the area of Veterans care! Based on the Republicans standard here of in an appropriation bill doing appropriations for a future year, that is, multiple years what is to stop a Congress in which the same Party controls both chambers of Congress and the White House and whose President is term limited and the other Party has a very popular Politician who is very likely to win the next Presidential election from in the last year of the current President's term in that year's appropriation bill making the appropriation for the next four fiscal years to make it hard for the next President to cut spending during his term. It seems with the Republican standard here you get a bad and unjust result!
Another option would be if the Republicans fail to get their Reconciliation bill through Congress and enacted into law by June of this year with provisions lifting the debt ceiling where in that case the Republican leadership would have to turn to the Democrats to lift the Debt ceiling. Of course the Democrat leadership could condition their help to the withdraw of this provision in the current appropriation bill giving Trump the power of sequestration and to practically amend the appropriation law but I don't think that is a good idea because if you set something as a condition than you have to be prepared to walk away if you don't get it and walking away here means causing a U.S. Treasury default with potentially catastrophic consequences and the harm from this power given to Trump can be fixed by replacing the bad budget cuts in future appropriation bills. Trump is proving himself not trustworthy to handle the financial reins of the country so in the debt ceiling negotiations Democrats should negotiate Fiscal Year spending levels for each of the next four fiscal years and spending by Departments absent agreed upon by Democrat spending cuts (Democrats should really commit to working with Republicans to cut a trillion and a half spending over the next ten years because America's current budget deficits is driving up interest rates and hurting ordinary people across the board and the only way to reverse this and stop it from getting worse is to cut some sizeable spending) and no power of sequestration and to amend appropriation laws will be given to the President in the respective appropriation bills and any other bills for the next four years. Moreover, the Democrats should set as a needed term extending the 2017 tax cuts through 2029 (you leave this to Republicans you are going to get a lot of irresponsible and just plain bad tax cuts plus irresponsible spending cuts) and of course box the Republicans in from doing bad tax cuts and bad spending cuts in how much you raise the debt ceiling over the next four years.
I am not a Democrat so I don't believe it is my place to comment on consequences if any that these nine "Trump helping" Democrat Senators should be subjected to over their betrayal of the Democrat Party. Though as s citizen I believe I have every right to comment on the behavior of members of Congress which are impacting the country of America so in that light I make the following observations. Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Dick Durbin at their core are representatives that have and will sell out America and ordinary Americans who depend on the well being of this country. Both of these guys have been in Democrat leadership for decades and they are as smart as a representative can be and regularly put the game of politics and the interests of the establishment over the interests of the entirety of the American people. These guys can talk a great game they can sound like they are the most idealistic representatives but if you look at the details of their track record they are swamp creatures their priority is special interests, namely in part, the wealthy and big business! Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Gary Peters and Senator Catherine Cortez Masto have made long careers of being part of the political establishment they have been elected officials for decades because they are prepared to give fidelity to the entity that is responsible for putting them in their seats the political establishment which means the money interests which allows the establishment to hold onto power. Senators Maggie Hassan and Senator Jeanne Shaheen are both Senators from the state of New Hampshire and that fact is as telling as any fact could be. In New Hampshire the Governor, State Senators and State House members all only have two year terms and all Legislature members are only paid $100 a year salary which largely leaves the jobs to wealthy people and retirees and the House has four hundred members (God couldn't coalesce such a large group); this set-up of the government makes it clear the government of NH is run by the political establishment. New Hampshire has no sales tax, no income tax and one of the highest property taxes in the nation; clearly the political establishment is all about protecting the interests of the wealthy (New Hampshire's state motto should be changed to: Live is for the Wealthy, Die is for the Poor or a Facsimile Of Such". It should be a surprise to no one that such a state's political establishment would produce Democrat Senators that when times get really tough they would cave and abdicate Congressional power and give to the President the power to control spending so that he can give undue tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations. Senator John Fetterman, you pitiable soul you; Senator Fetterman fancies himself as a champion of blue collar workers. Well many blue collar workers are not highly educated ( I am not saying they are not highly intelligent) they haven't received education beyond high school and they have a reputation of not being educated; Senator Fetterman needs to learn just because you represent them doesn't mean you have to act like them. Senator Fetterman's spiel like the choice was between a shutdown where people get really hurt or accepting a Republican bad bill was the only choices presented; an educated analysis would have concluded it wasn't such a clear choice a compromise had a chance and the principles involved warranted a fight! Senator Fetterman needs to hire some additional staff with the job qualification of have wisdom so maybe such will rub off on him!
