Posted on 03/13/2025 9:08:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Remember the movie (or the novel) “Sophie’s Choice"? Meryl Streep won an Oscar for playing a woman whom the Nazis posed with a dilemma: choose one of her two children to send to the gas chamber, or else the Nazis would execute both of them. The choice haunted her after the war ended.
It’s a heartrending thought, and, sure, it’s a bit extreme for a metaphor, but in the fight over this continuing resolution, the Democrats are faced with what I’ll call Schumer’s Choice. The fate of the government is in the hands of Democrat senators now, and neither choice is good for them.
The continuing resolution gives the Democrats fits because it funds the government with the Trump administration in charge of it — including Elon Musk’s DOGE and Tom Homan’s ICE. That prospect alone is enough to give Democrats nightmares.
The other prospect is to shut the government down. We can be 100% certain that the Democrats will have to own that decision, and Trump and his communications team will be sure to remind the American public at every turn. But there’s another wrinkle to the looming shutdown: who takes charge of the government in that scenario.
If the government shuts down over a budget fight, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) takes charge. And who’s in charge of the OMB? None other than Russell Vought.
Last month, my PJ Media colleague Rick Moran reported that the Democrats said Vought was the most dangerous nominee for a position in the Trump administration. Rick wrote:
Democrats believe that the mild-mannered, self-described devout Christian nominee for budget director, Russell Vought, is "the most dangerous" Trump nominee.
“Russell Vought was born to make corruption safe again,” said freshman Sen. Andy Kim, Democrat from New Jersey.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
Vought is the same man who is so dangerous that his Christian college alma mater, Wheaton College ( Yes, the Rev. Billy Graham’s alma mater as well ) apologized for congratulating him on his new gig at the OMB.
What makes him particularly unattractive to Democrats is that he was one of the authors of the Project 2025 manifesto, which isn’t a Trump administration project, but it has become the Democrats’ only epithet when all else fails and they’re reduced to stuttering and sputtering.
I think it’s funny that Democrats are threatening Trump with exactly what he wants, to shut down the government!
LMAO
oh no!! (says Trump) don’t shut down the government!
LMAO
liberals are morons.
“Democrats always tell you who they are most afraid of.” - Rush Limbaugh.....................
The shoe is on the other foot now, Trump is saying pass the bill democrats or the government will shut down
Anyone the democrats oppose and vilify that much has got to be good.
The irony.
Project 2025 is a great document to use during a government shut-down.
It tells you exactly what is essential and what is not.
It is the ultimate Democrat nightmare.
But—if they want Project 2025 to run the country for a while so be it.
Lol.
Don’t throw me in that there briar patch!
The positive, as more and more of the DC crowd finds its way onto the pavement, consider this: when downsizing happened in mid America, they called it the Rust Bowl. I guess DC area is heading for the title of Bad Paper Bowl as more and more of the over paid unemployable DC mob cannot make their car, home and other payments.
There are only 6 Dem Senators up for reelection next year who are from even remotely close states.
We need 9 Dem votes because Rand Paul is a NO.
Don’t go waving your hands about how the government shutdown benefits who. The MSM will be against that, but Trump proved no one cares much about the MSM. Well, one group does and that would be the hardcore blue base. They will embrace the MSM take and that guarantees most of those 6 are safe.
We also have a few GOP seats at risk next year. Note that despite Maine being blue and despite FR for some reason hating Susan Collins (who represents her state, somehow, as a GOP seat), she is a Yes on this CR. Very risky for her and her campaign next year.
Want her beaten no matter what? Okay, then we need 10 Dem senators to vote Yes for 2027’s CRs upcoming.
From ChatGPT, govt activities that will be halted during a shutdown.
National parks
R&D (incl space missions if not deemed critical)
Processing Grants and Grant requests
Processing govt documents (passport applications)
VA healthcare continues but not processing of benefits claims
Soc Sec checks continue but processing of claims halts
Federal employee training halts
FDA suspends non critical inspection of food and drugs
Contracting and procurement stops
GPT did not quantify, but I don’t see a lot of money saved by those shutdowns.
I read, page by page, at least half of the Project 2025 document, approximately 500 pages worth (I think it is a thousand pages) just to see what was so evil in it.
I didn’t find anything “evil”.
If anyone in the Trump Administration told me they were using it as a playbook, I would respond with: “Great. I would like to see all of it that I read enacted.”
The administration has a lot of discretion during a government shut-down to define what is essential and what is not essential.
Unless there is specific detailed legislation restricting them they have a free hand.
A Schumer “victory” will be a successful Democrat suicide.
It also seems to me that they want to take your veteran grandfather's social security and medicare away!
That’s the GPT list of essential and non essential.
What would Trump to remove from the Essential list that would somehow hurt Dems but not the GOP?
ATC? Nope. The military? Nope. HUD will shut down, but Medicare and Medicaid checks go out. I just asked GPT and it says SNAP is not halted, though new applications processing will be.
I’m going down GPT’s Essential list, so those just mentioned. EPA shuts down. Dept of Education shuts down. But that requires no Trump discretion. They are already to shut down.
Federal employees both essential and non essential stop having pay processed. This includes DoD.
Anyway I don’t see a huge Dem/GOP differential as to who gets hurt and who does not.
Trump definitely is using parts of the heritage project.
GPT does not rule the country—yet.
The administration will work its will—and with the government shut down there will be nobody to challenge them.
If somebody wants to complain after the fact that there was an issue they will have plenty of time to do so!
We never save money in a shutdown. The last trump shutdown was 35 days and cost 4 billion. They need to suspend all spending completely to even try to save money.
Hmm. Not sure of the scenario, but the military goes to work, even though they are not paid. That’s right, standard shutdown does not send checks to military for the duration.
If they can go to work without pay, judges can, too. Especially the blue judges. And probably their law clerks to get the documents phrased and issued.
As to GPT, I’m just using it to surf webpages faster than I can. Frankly, no one should be using it for anything else — like “please draw me a picture of Jesus”. That’s just silly.
I *have* seen suggestions that pay missed not be made up. Not 100% sure but I think there is a law that prevents that, passed in the wake of a previous shutdown.
GPT says nope:
Antideficiency Act: This law prohibits federal agencies from spending money or making financial commitments without an appropriation from Congress. In the case of a shutdown, when funding is restored, agencies are required to pay back wages owed to employees for the shutdown period.
GPT has some errors in its analysis—probably worth an entire book to detail them.
Bottom line—without citing specific legislative language and judicial history the claims are useless.
I know of specific cases that “closed” agencies are required by legislation to maintain certain functions. These are often obscure with no media coverage so GPT has no access to that data.
I have no clue whether the administration would choose to follow the rules of that legislation or not—there are probably hundreds of these little “niche” issues.
My point—however—is that in the real world the administration will be able to do what it wishes during a government shutdown period.
Any legal messes would have to be dealt with after the fact.
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