In response to last night’s “red alert” post, a number of TPM Readers have written in to say, okay, okay, fine but what exactly do I tell my member of Congress? This takes me a bit out of my lane. I’m not a strategist. But I can say how I see the situation, where the weak points seem to be.
So here’s my take.
Republicans control the White House and Congress. They’re the majority. The current “continuing resolution” that’s funding the government runs out on March 14th. They’re also trying to put together a budget to take away your health care coverage and give Elon a huge tax cut. But that new budget won’t kick in until later this year. They’re just starting that budget process. But they need to fund the government in the meantime. They’re in the majority. So they need to do that. But they only have a tiny majority and they’re clowns and they can’t manage to do this simple thing — basically because they can’t get the Freedom Caucus freaks to vote for something that their few moderates will also support. So they’re coming to Democrats basically hat in hand: “Friends, we are clowns. And we are about to do a shut down the government on ourselves. Can you help us?”
So that’s the pressure point. It’s not actually the budget, though that’s a whole other problem since again, clowns … But the March 14th deadline is what has their back against the wall. So they’re coming to Democrats, hat in hand, and asking for help, even though by rights this is an easy thing they should just do themselves. But, clowns …
So what’s the ask? Donald Trump has been licensing Elon Musk to go on a crime spree through the federal government. There are lots of individual statutory crimes. But the big one is an open-and-shut violation of the constitution itself. The Congress has the power of the purse. It makes a budget. The budget isn’t a suggestion. It’s the law. If the President can treat it as voluntary, just refusing to honor parts of the budget or simply shutting down parts of the government Congress created, the power of the purse in meaningless. Yes, there are members of the Supreme Court (we don’t know precisely how many) who claim this is fine. But that’s because they’re corrupt. It’s not fine.
So the administration has been marauding, wilding, not only shredding the Constitution but doing it with a typically malevolent joy in hurting people, not only federal workers but the American people who rely on their government and who themselves are the sovereign. Now the marauders are coming to the Democrats for help. So what’s the ask? I think the ask is, “no help until the criminal conduct stops.”
That seems clear to me. Whether it works as a slogan I don’t know. But I think that’s clear. I would demand they shut down DOGE. Undo the damage that’s already done. Period. If I were in Congress, I’d say “no talking about anything until that happens.” Once it does I’m sure Republicans and Democrats can haggle over budget details on the CR and maybe the actual budget. But the criminal and unconstitutional conduct has to stop before you can even talk about budget numbers.
In the post last night I noted that Republicans seem to be saying, “Guys, be reasonable. Trump will never agree to stopping the criminal conduct. That’s impossible.” If they were saying that to me I’d say, “then get your own votes.” The Constitution is the basis of everything.
I know this may not boil down to a slogan. But this is how I see the situation.
