It’s over, folks. The government shutdown is over—and Donald Trump has won. The Senate finally mustered the 60 votes (81-18) to re-open the government until February 8. If no immigration deal on Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals occurs before that date, the Senate will immediately hold votes for a DACA fix. Of course, in the three-week interim, the Senate will work to hash out a deal, and Children’s Health Insurance Programs is being funded for six-years. Didn’t Democrats get a promise for immigration reform, CHIP funding, etc. how is this a win for the GOP? None of the issues were ever really contentious. DACA fix was going to happen. CHIP was going to be funded. FISA is going to be renewed. This continuing resolution is a carbon copy of the previous legislation that was voted down, just with one week less of funding. The Democrats got nothing, only to show everyone that they’re willing to shut down the government for illegal aliens. This isn’t just the conservative take. Journalists from The New York Times, Boston Globe, Politico, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, and CNN were all wondering what the hell the Democrats were thinking if this was the end game.
Democrats have managed to accede to Republican demands, demoralize their energized base, give a disengaged president a win, and look like they held a meaningless three day government shutdown — all at once.
— Matt Viser (@mviser) January 22, 2018
If this thing passes at noon, WOW. Democrats got nothing in this. Can someone please remind me why this happened to begin with? Wasn't it abt a DACA deal? There is no DACA deal
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) January 22, 2018
We now await Democrats’ spin about how this isn’t a cave
— Erica Werner (@ericawerner) January 22, 2018
so, other than boosting Cap Lounge's business in the wee hours Saturday, what exactly did this shutdown accomplish?
— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) January 22, 2018
Democrats surrender.
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) January 22, 2018
Not sure I understand the point of the last three days.
Can someone clearly state what exactly Chuck Schumer extracted from McConnell by shutting down the government?
— David Chalian (@DavidChalian) January 22, 2018
Was fairly predictable that Dems would get rolled. They didn’t have a much of a bargaining position.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) January 22, 2018
BUT…. This does actually set them up a bit better for February
I wonder if Dems understand how much of their base will be demoralized by accepting this deal.
— Elana Schor (@eschor) January 22, 2018
Sounds like Senate Democrats will vote to reopen the government.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 22, 2018
Sen. Angus King, asked to respond to the left, quotes Mick Jagger: “You can’t always get what you want.”
Pretty weak outcome for the Democrats — they couldn't get a summit meeting with Trump/GOP leaders or promise to attach DACA fix to a must-pass bill — but they were worried about the lack of a clear endgame and McConnell wasn't budging on concessions.
— Alex Bolton (@alexanderbolton) January 22, 2018
Democrats’ messaging was all over the place. A CNN poll found that among Democrats, the split between those who wanted to avoid a shutdown or continuing DACA was 42/49 respectively. Dana Bash read the results and wondered if the Democrats were misreading their base. Moreover, anchors from the network had repeatedly fact-checked Democratic Senators on air over the weekend over the false narrative that the GOP controls everything; you need 60 votes to do anything in the Senate legislatively and the Democrats decided to dig in for illegal aliens. For the die-hard progressives in the Democratic Party, this is probably a body blow.
Bloomberg’s Joshua Green said in the end, the Trump position on immigration won.
So, bra-vo, Democrats; you got outplayed and outcoached. See you in the next bout.
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