By Douglas V. Gibbs
While the halls of Capitol Hill echo with partisan rhetoric and political theater, real Americans are bracing for empty paychecks and shuttered benefits. On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted down the Shutdown Fairness Act; a bill that would have ensured federal workers, including military personnel, TSA agents, and law enforcement officers, received pay during the ongoing government shutdown.
This wasn’t a bill to end the shutdown. It wasn’t a Trojan horse for Republican demands. It was a lifeline. It was a simple, targeted measure to pay those who are still showing up to work while Washington plays chicken with the American economy. And Democrats killed it.
The vote fell short at 54-45 in the U.S. Senate, just shy of the 60 votes needed for cloture to advance. Only three Democrats – Fetterman, Ossoff, and Warnock – crossed party lines to support the bill. The rest chose party over people.
Why?
Because for the Democrats suffering is leverage. Because missed paychecks and unfunded benefits are bargaining chips in a high-stakes game of political brinkmanship. Because the party that claims to champion working families is now using those same families as hostages in a legislative standoff.
If this shutdown continues, benefits programs like SNAP will not be funded come November 1. Millions of Americans who rely on food assistance, housing support, and basic services that the Democrats typically champion will be left in the cold while Capitol Hill debates optics and power.
Those political ideological hacks who voted against the bill are not representing the people who sent them to office. They are not governing as the voters want them to. The Democrats are committing political extortion, and they are doubling down somehow believing that this behavior is good for America – let me rephrase that: they believe it is good for them. They could care less about America, nor the people who sent them to office. This is all about their power. Pure and simple.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) introduced the bill, calling it a matter of fairness. The Shutdown Fairness Act would have paid those deemed “essential,” those still working, still protecting, still serving, while Congress sorts out its dysfunction. But Democrats objected, claiming the bill gave the President too much discretion over who gets paid. So instead of fixing that, they blocked the whole thing.
They voted for people to suffer because they hate President Trump so much that they wish to block him from doing things that their own guys in the past did with congratulations from these some of these very same Democrats.
The Democrats countered with a bill that would have paid all federal workers while also limiting the president’s authority, which is unconstitutional by the way. That bill was blocked by Republicans earlier in the week. Constitutionally, Congress cannot pass a law to tell the President he can’t do something that he is constitutionally afforded. Article II clearly gives the President of the United States full authority over all executive powers, which includes his position as head of the executive branch. He can hire, he can fire, and he can determine internal strategies regarding the movement of funding. Those duties are constitutionally granted to the President of the United States. But remember, the Democrats don’t truly care about the Constitution. All they care about is stopping the guy who has done the most to reduce their level of political power and control. And in response, the authoritarians of the Democratic Party seek to steal authorities constitutionally granted to the President of the United States.
So here we are: two parties, two bills, and zero paychecks.
The Democrats have put their power, and their hatred for Donald Trump, ahead of America and We the People. They have put their ideology over doing what’s right. Democrats have put their demands ahead of serving the American People.
The Schumer Shutdown is a betrayal. Every unpaid worker, every unfunded benefit, every struggling family is a casualty of that betrayal.
The court of public opinion is watching, and the Midterm Elections loom on the horizon.
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
