Special Report With Brett Baier: Jessica Tarlov On The House CR

“There’s no reason for Democrats to support a CR that they weren’t consulted on at all. There’s no reason the Democrats should bail out the Republicans. We’ve been hearing since the election that this is the largest mandate in American history, so prove it. We’re not here to bail them out.”

Source:Fox News political commentator Jessica Tarlov.

From Vince D Monroy

Just for the record: I'm not in favor of forced government shutdowns, whether they're done by Republicans (which is normally the case) or by Democrats, which was led by Senate Minority Chuck Schumer in 2018. The politics is bad, but worst, if disrupts the lives of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of government workers who need their jobs, as well as local businesses who rely on those workers to stay in business. 

But, this is Tuesday and any potential government shutdown wouldn't be until 11:59PM Friday night. And asking Democrats to vote for a continuing resolution that probably cuts Medicaid anyway, is bad politics for them, its bad politics for vulnerable House Republicans, perhaps even Senate Republicans as well. One 1 House Democrat out of 215: Representative Jared Golden (Democrat, Maine) voted for it. So House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gets this as well. 

So now the bill goes to the Senate where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will have a big decision to make: 

block the bill, where Majority Leader John Thune would need 60 votes to get to final passage on it. 

allow the bill to come up and tell your members to vote for cloture, but lock in all your members to vote against it and then use those Senate Republican votes against vulnerable Senate Republicans in 2026 when they have to run for reelection, where President Trump will probably be pretty unpopular by then (unless he drastically changes course) 

Or, work with the Senate Majority Leader to get a compromise that both sides in the Senate could support, that would pass the House overwhelmingly (if it just came to the floor) 

But this House MAGA government funding bill is I believe the first test in how Congressional Democrats will act as the opposition party. If they take James Carville advice, they'll: 

"Democratic strategist James Carville called on Democrats to make a "strategic political retreat" in a guest essay for The New York Times on Tuesday, telling members of his party "to play dead."

"Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight, and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat," he wrote. 

"With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead," the strategist continued.

"Carville compared his suggestion to a "tactical pause," and argued the Democrats needed to stop regularly playing defense against the Trump administration's actions.

"It’s a vision move — get out of the hour-to-hour, day-to-day combat where one side (ours) is largely playing defense and struggling to defend politically charged positions (like explaining D.E.I. or persuading voters to care about foreign aid), and take time to regroup, look forward and make decisions about where we want to get to over the next two years," Carville said.

He said Americans were likely not waiting around for lawmakers and commentators to make the same old arguments to criticize the president. 

"They’re tired of it, and our Democratic voters are tired of watching us moan and groan to cover up our impotency out of power. They want us to be smarter than that," he added." 

From The New Democrat

If they take James Carville''s advice, neither Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer will try to prevent Republicans from politically jumping off the bridge, or making sure they have parachutes before they jump out of the plane, or make sure they're sober enough to drive themselves home. They'll just let Congressional Republicans politically crash and burn on their own. 

If this this is the choice for Chuck Schumer: let Republicans take full responsibility for their crash and burn style of politics and government, or be the voice of reason and just offer John Thune a clean continuing resolution, with no cuts or spending increases in it. And we'll see what Senate Democrats do this week. 

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