Fun and games in the Capital

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Shutdown Theater: Dems Are Desperate for a Shutdown but Have No Idea How to Get Out of It

Rehearsals for this year's production of Shutdown Theater are nearing an end, and, with last-minute changes to the script, Democrats are at a loss.

They have no idea how to create a happy ending.

“We may not have the luxury of a victory scenario,” said Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). “I think what we’re trying to do is avoid things getting worse. I don’t think victory is in anyone’s hopes and dreams in this moment.”

Democrats, under enormous pressure from their hysterical base to "Fight! Fight! Fight!," have decided on the Götterdämmerung approach: blow it all up and pick up the pieces later.

In other words, they don't care if the voters blame them for the shutdown, or so they say.

When Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer was asked if he was willing to shut the government down, he said, “Ask the Republicans if they are willing to shut the government down.”

This is playing directly into President Trump's hands. Trump is so far into the Democrats' heads that now they all think they're billionaires who grew up in New York.

On Friday, Trump told reporters Republicans don’t have to “deal with the Democrats” on spending. This enraged the Democrats (as Trump knew it would) and forced their hand. They are now going to introduce a counterproposal that will add $1 trillion to healthcare spending alone.

….

“We expect them to come and negotiate and to live up to what they told their voters back in ’24, not even a year ago, what they were going to do, which was lower costs. And health care is a huge part of that,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark told reporters Wednesday.

The author of this article does suggest a shutdown could still be avoided, but I’m not sure of that; the hard left has taken control of the Democrat party, and just as New York pols have caved to their new socialist masters in the NYC mayoral race, my money’s on shutdown.

It appears that neither side wants to avoid the shutdown. They've gone through the process enough times to know that the "shutdown" doesn't catastrophically end government services on Oct. 1. The slow-motion shutdown gives both sides a couple of weeks to work something out.

One interesting scenario would be if Trump were to act like Barack Obama did during shutdowns when he was in office. Obama closed all the national parks, museums, and other popular tourist spots for no reason, just to get a lot of people mad at Republicans.This time, the anger would be directed at Democrats.

I don’t share the author’s sanginity: both he and the Republicans may be underestimating the power of their opponent’s media monkeys to control the public’s perception of who would be to blame.

How are they achieving that miracle of smoke in the eyes? Here’s just one minor example from The Economic Times.