Ideas to Reopen Government

[KeithE]

1) The Senate Dems should have enough of their ranks vote Yes on the Continuing Resolution (CR) to let it pass (Doug Jones already said he will vote Yes and he did vote No on cloture last night hoping for solution); at the same time demand (with Trump and McConnell publicly promising to do so) that a fix to DACA (allowing the dreamers stay in the country) be completed by the DACA end date of March 5. Note that believes DACA should be continued forever to save 700,000+ fully integrated Americans - only extreme nationalism says otherwise.

2) The Senate GOP (w/ or w/o Trumps’ approval) should add a DACA fix to the CR (extending it at least a few years) and I believe it will pass. I doubt this will occur but it would end the Shutdown.

Which ever side does this first will improve their popularity with the public. “Blinking” in this case is not a sign of weakness but of pragmatism/adulthood.

And quit the blame game - it does not help.

Shutdowns (if they are short term) and CRs have been no big deal to military programs I’ve been involved with. We expected and usually were well prepared to deal with CRs by saving funds from previous year(s). But I'm sure they do hurt other programs in varying degrees. Now if the shutdown (not CRs) goes on long term, we are in uncharted country.

I don’t think Trump cares if much of the government is shut down. He would love many Government agencies and bureaus to disappear - I can think of a few myself e.g. the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and the Dept of Education (leave it to the states). But the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? - that frees up the payday lenders, shell companies that hide malfeasance, use offshore banks to avoid taxes, ...

But on the positive side, I do see that Trump is staying in Wash DC instead of another trip to Mir-al-Largo for a fund raising party. That shows he wants this impasse won, more than partying (contributions will always be received).

And I doubt Trump cares about the DACA recipients either. He cares about himself, the rich, and big business (thinks it will all flow downhill from there). His tax cut bill shows his/the GOP's priorities and that is certainly not the lower/middle/upper middle classes.


What do you all think?

[Rvaughn]

A friend on Facebook posted a link to this article:

[Jon Estes]

Make the vote only on the C/R.

The adding of bills like DACA to these things to get them passed is not treating DACA fairly, nor those citizens ill-affected by a government shutdown.

If DACA is as crucial as they say, deal with it a something that important, not just a tag onto something else to see it through.

There is a March deadline for it anyway.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

The President suggested the Nuclear Option. That’s where filibusters can be ended by a 51% majority. Not a bad idea in general. Our government should not be held hostage by a minority, but the majority MUST be open to to consider the alternatives other than their pre-biases and party platforms.

I would be for a cloture procedure taken after say 1 day of filibuster and 1 hour per speaker. Minority should be able to say there piece (and the other side should be there to listen!), but not forever!. And I would love that there be more factual DATA (less sloganeering) given at these speeches.

I guess I’m dreaming on how things should be.

[Sandy]

[Jon Estes]

[Sandy]

I would agree that not allowing bills to be attached to CR's would be a better way to go. But that's not how the rules operate. These rules worked when government operated with bi-partisan negotiation. But the winner take all mentality that now prevails means that in a situation like this, either the whole partisan majority has to go along, or there's gridlock.

Lifting quotes from the Republicans during the last couple of years of the Obama administration, if we had a competent president, we'd have had a budget passed by now, and all of these CR's wouldn't be necessary. It's been a year. The president's party controls both houses. Why can't he get his budget through?

Then there's this

https://federalnewsradio.com/government ... -shutdown/

Democrats put forth a bill to stop Congressional pay during the shutdown, along with one to continue to pay the military and other essential services during the shutdown, and Mitch McConnell shut both of them down.

[KeithE]

[JE Pettibone]

[KeithE]

[JE Pettibone]

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[JE Pettibone]

[Jon Estes]

Well, the government is open. Looks like Schumer (referring to all Dems) had to take the blame (it was theirs to take).

Yeah, it's not over but in the next few weeks, we might actually see a wall given the thumbs up so DACA can get through.

Interesting times.

Time to clean up the FBI and mess the anti-Trump people have made and left.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

One thing is clear, to win battles like this, Democrats are going to have to "go for the jugular" as Republicans do. Sadly, that is what the body politic responds to most.

[Sandy]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

We might all agree that this shutdown business is pure, unadulterated politics. I was amused to see that Schumer got waxed on this one, fascinating and enjoyable to watch.

Who knows what the next one will look like, other than a circus without a tent.

[Sandy]

Schumer got waxed? Sure didn't seem that way. Given the mimicking of stuck pigs from Ryan and McConnell, I'd say they're the ones that got the waxing, and a shellacking on top of a whipping.

[William Thornton]

[KeithE]

Well according to the poll, I'd say no one "got waxed”, the blame is distributed 39% to Democrats, 56% to Republicans (38% to Trump, 18% to Congressional Reps) - no doubt along party lines. Note that 39% is close (within the ±3% margin-of-error) to Trump's approval lately - - down from 38% on 1/14. To me “waxed" means something akin to being discredited to the point of irrelevance.

The beat goes on.

William, who on MSM says Schumer got waxed? or similar words? Please provide a link.

I’ll strike this demand for a link. Not that I found any on MSM (NBC,ABC,CBS), but that it is too demanding (don’t want to demand that much from posters). I did find a Politco article that said and the RW Press (NY Post, Fox News, the Federalist) is all over this characterization.