"This is wholesale destruction, what’s proposed"

PRESENTED BY EGRETS: I’VE HAD A FEW

As Billy Joe Armstrong said, it’s time to wake up. Federal shutdowns during a gap in appropriations are a legacy of the Reagan era, and we’re about to hit another one at midnight. Funding bills remain subject to a Senate filibuster, for now, so the Trump regime needs the support of at least seven Democrats to continue its openly fascist reign with a whiff of Constitutional legitimacy. Andy Craig clearly defines what’s at stake today:

This is the government that is banning the words “climate change,” “green,” and “emissions,” propping up the coal industry, using American cities as “training grounds for our military,” and defining any organization to the left of Charlie Kirk as “anti-American” “terrorism.”

Faced with this civilizational threat, Congressional Democrats are coordinated in holding the line for their support on health care costs. In particular, they’re seeking to extend Obamacare tax credits for the healthcare industry to keep health insurance affordable for 15 million Americans, championed by progressive healthcare blogger Charles Gaba, the healthcare industry (and their front-group think tanks), and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). By early September, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and MoveOn set the line for voting for a government funding bill at “saving the ACA.”

“But wait!” you might say. “Even if we concede this is a deal worth making, hasn’t Trump been ignoring Congressional appropriations from day one? Why would he obey a deal on Obamacare? Shouldn’t the bright line for Democrats at least be restoring Congress’s power of the purse?”

If you said that, you’d be right.

Project 2025 architect and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought and his DOGE army (installed by Elon Musk and still operating to this date) have been illegally firing federal employees, illegally shutting down entire federal agencies, illegally withholding federal funds, illegally redirecting funds to secret slush funds, illegally rescinding appropriations.

“Billions in taxpayer dollars have become virtually untraceable,” Anna Kramer and Mark Alfred report. As David Dayen and Whitney Wimbish write, “the government is already shut down, and has been for several months.”

“It’s been OMB director Russell Vought’s shutdown all along,” Daniel Schuman further explains. Now Vought is calling for illegal mass layoffs during the shutdown. “The shutdown provides another opportunity for action, even though agencies have no legal authority to layoff federal workers during one.”

Russ Vought’s shutdown plan is “illegal, unconstitutional, and deeply disturbing,” says Tim Whitehouse, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

“Even without a government shutdown, a third of the US Geological Survey’s Climate Adaptation Science Centers could wind down or cease operations this week because the Interior Department is refusing to submit paperwork to release funding,” Jessica McKenzie writes.

Fortunately, the stop-gap funding plan put forward by Senate Democrats includes several provisions to rein in Vought’s usurpation of Congress’s power of the purse, including reversing the recent $4.9 billion pocket rescission blessed by the radical Supreme Court. Dayen calls this the “No Kings budget.”

Two weeks ago on the Senate floor, minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked, “Why pass a budget if Russell Vought can unilaterally rescind it?”

However and nevertheless: Since then, there’s been little effort made by the Democratic caucus—other than Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)—to argue on behalf of the No Kings provisions, and key members of his caucus have said they’re willing to fold entirely in return for a pinky promise to deal with healthcare costs at some point later this year—in particular Shaheen and Schumer’s whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

Furthermore, there is limited organized pressure on Democrats to fight for the Constitution. 5calls.org is clear: “Oppose a Blank Check Federal Budget Deal.” The upstart Federal Unionists Network and 35 federal union locals are demanding Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) defend the power of the purse.

However, the American Federation of Government Employees, which in March called for Democrats to hold the line against Trump, is now emphasizing a “stop the shutdown” message instead (with calls for a No Kings budget secondary). Indivisible is similarly making its push for a No Kings budget secondary to the healthcare message, even as it helps organize for No Kings protests on October 18. Even ResistBot is toeing the healthcare line.

Most of the push against Democrats rubber-stamping the Trump regime’s dismantling of our 249-year-old constitutional democracy is coming from isolated bloggers like yours truly.¹ One of them is Charles “ACA Signups” Gaba himself:

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1  Fun fact, right before his heel turn as race-science apologist, Ezra Klein was one of those bloggers.