President Donald Trump and his complicitly compliant Republican lackeys in Congress this week face an unusual challenge – keep the federal government open and operating so he can continue to destroy it.
The Democrats in Congress face a very different challenge – they have been hopeless and hapless, sputtering from their posts in the minority, unable to do much of anything to stymie Trump’s attack on our government.
This week, that Democratic weakness could finally become a power.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who perverted his position from leader of coequal branch of government to submissive stooge for a destructive president, has a narrow and nervous majority. That spans from hard-right legislators who collect $174,000 annual salaries while whining about government funding to moderate members who worry about constituents back home raging about federal programs being slashed.
Johnson has previously needed votes from Democrats in the House to help pass continuing resolutions to keep the government open, including in December after Trump caused a near-shutdown even before his inauguration.
Not this time. House Democrats sound united in opposing this continuing resolution, which would fund the government until the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Republicans have Trump and Elon Musk, who delights in demolishing federal agencies and programs without stopping to consider the problems caused, to thank for that.
Johnson’s margins are so narrow that his continuing resolution could fail in an anticipated vote Tuesday if more than one of his Republican members votes against it. The resolution includes a $6 billion bump in defense spending and $13 billion in cuts to domestic programs.
Democrats denounced it Saturday when it was unveiled. “We are voting no,” declared House Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar.
If it passes the House, at least seven Democrats in the Senate and all 53 Republicans would need to support it to overcome a filibuster. Senate Democrats sound less united on this than their colleagues in the House.
This is the first viable chance for Democrats in Congress to exert some sort of power to resist the Trump-Musk march to dismantle our government.
Let’s be clear about something: Government shutdowns are a sign of our government failing us. We shouldn’t root for them, no matter which political party prompts them. So it annoys me to suggest that Democrats should not move to keep the government open. But what other option do they have now?
Voters in November gave Republicans control of the White House and Congress. But both legislative chambers are ruled with slim majorities. In a rational government, that would mean that both political parties would find a way to work together to accomplish things that could satisfy both sides.
We don’t have a rational government. We have Trump and Musk, an unelected billionaire flying high on attention (and maybe more some days), doing whatever they want while Republicans in Congress surrender the power vested in their posts by Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
Let the Republicans fund the government or shut it down. Democrats should stand back and let them own whatever comes next.
Trump and Musk have made it perfectly clear that they have no respect for the constitutional provisions that say Congress sets funding for agencies and programs.
Even the U.S. Supreme Court, unbalanced with a 6-3 ultraconservative majority, narrowly ruled last week that Trump could not cancel nearly $2 billion in spending approved by Congress for work already done by foreign aid organizations.
That’s how our government is supposed to work, three coequal branches of government keeping each other in check. That’s what the House speaker and U.S. Sen. John Thune, the Republican majority leader from South Dakota, have surrendered to Trump.
Johnson may be able to pass his House resolution without Democrats. Given the inherently chaotic nature of his caucus, though, he could fail. If he needs Democratic votes, Jeffries and his caucus should force the House Republican leader to make concessions.
They should negotiate, as our government is designed, to find safeguards to keep Trump and Musk from unilaterally cutting agencies, programs and employment approved by Congress.
Instead, Johnson and Thune are joining with Trump in pre-assigning blame on Democrats if the government shuts down.
“Democrats will do anything they can to shut down our Government, and we can’t let that happen,” Trump posted on his own social media website Saturday.
He then used the White House’s official account on Musk’s dumpster fire of disinformation, the social media site X, to repost that while urging all Republicans to vote for the resolution.
That’s not how math works. Republicans have a majority. If they stick together, they can pass the resolution. If they don’t, Democrats are not to blame for that.
Remember, Trump brought us to the brink of a government shutdown in December after Johnson negotiated with Democrats for the continuing resolution that is about to expire at midnight on Friday. Trump made the House speaker trash that deal, causing the crisis, which only ended when Johnson reworked the resolution to reflect the original deal and Democrats helped pass it.
That was a preview of the chaos Trump and Musk have since stirred in our federal government, with Johnson’s toadyish sign-off. In the seven weeks since Trump took office, it’s only gotten worse.
Maybe the Democrats can’t stop them. But they don’t have to go along with it, either. Sit this one out. Let the Republicans win or lose by themselves.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
