DEAL LEAVES LEFT FEELING BLUE
If you’re looking for winners in the government shutdown battle, you can call off the search — there were none.
Republican lawmakers certainly didn’t win by weaponizing young immigrants seeking only to continue studying, working and contributing billions to the U.S. economy. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went so far as to say that Democrats were just pandering to “extreme elements of their base,” though support for finding a solution for so-called “Dreamers,” who were brought into the country as children, is wide and bipartisan.
President Trump, who billed himself in his campaign as a master dealmaker, didn’t come out ahead either. He was relegated to the sidelines after repeatedly frustrating Democrats and Republicans with his waffling and interference. His biggest contribution to the discourse? An offensive campaign ad baselessly charging Democrats with being accessories to murder — something even House Speaker Paul Ryan said was not “productive.”
But the biggest losers of all were the Democrats. Not only did they fail to craft an effective message to counter the GOP’s attacks, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his colleagues squandered the little bit of political leverage they had to end up right where they started — with no deal for DACA and nothing more than McConnell’s word that they’ll deal with Dreamers later.
Worse, they showed their hand with an offer of funds for Trump’s border wall, setting the floor for negotiations that now must start from scratch.
And worst of all, the Democrats undercut the biggest asset they have heading into the 2018 midterm elections: the grassroots activists who had been energized on their behalf.
Ilya Sheyman of MoveOn.org called the agreement to end the shutdown “a bad, outrageous deal.”
“Trump and Republicans in Congress stood with their anti-immigrant nativist base, and too many Democrats backed down, abandoned Dreamers, and failed to fight for their values.”
As Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told Bloomberg of his own party: “They caved. They blinked. That’s what they do.”
Democrats tout that they got funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years in the vote. However, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a deal to fund it for 10 years would have paid for itself with savings. A six-year deal won’t. Another lost opportunity.
And despite McConnell’s assurances, the Democrats did nothing to secure a promise from Ryan. The speaker is a strict adherent to the so-called Hastert Rule of not bringing any measure to a vote without support from the majority of the majority. The chances of anything passing with lopsided Democratic support is slim to none.
Democrats’ only bright side: As the battle resets ahead of a Feb. 8 deadline, they can’t do much worse.