Democrats had three months to get their act together and completely blew it. Now, they have another six months to try again – and there’s too much on the line for them to fail.
Last week, we laid out how important it was for Senate Democrats to use the unique power that they had to block Republicans’ disastrous six-month funding bill, or “continuing resolution.” In the end, however, ten of them, led by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer did not take our advice, as they ultimately provided the votes that Republicans needed to bypass the filibuster and pass their legislation on Friday evening.
For this week’s Closer Look, we want to give you the whole story of what went down with the funding bill vote, reemphasize why the bill was so bad, and explain what Democrats need to do before they find themselves in the same position again six months from now.
The House passed Republicans’ funding bill on Tuesday, March 11th, with virtually unanimous support from Republicans and virtually unanimous opposition from Democrats. Then it moved to the Senate. On Wednesday, reports indicated that Senate Democrats might follow the lead of their House counterparts and oppose the bill. But then on Friday, ten of them did a 180 and caved to Republicans, the bill passed, and President Trump signed it into law the next day.
Here’s how it all went down. To pass their bill, Republicans needed 60 votes for a process called cloture, which overcomes the filibuster. Once that happened, they then needed just 51 votes to officially pass their bill into law. Because Republicans had a 53-seat majority, in reality, the most important vote here was not for the actual bill but for cloture. This is because Republicans needed a handful of Democrats to help them remove the filibuster obstacle standing in their way, but then wouldn’t really need them when the bill officially reached the floor for a final vote. Specifically, they needed at least eight Democratic supporters for cloture, as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul made clear that he was firmly against the measure.
On Friday, Republicans easily found those Democratic supporters – ten of them, to be exact. These Democrats decided to vote for cloture to overcome the filibuster, but then, with two exceptions, they then turned around and voted “no” on the official bill itself. They believed that they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they didn’t want to pass Republicans’ so-called “horrible” funding bill but also didn’t want to be blamed for a government shutdown. So, to worm their way out, they decided to do a bait-and-switch: vote for cloture to clear the way for the bill to pass and avoid a shutdown, but just over an hour later, turn around and vote “no” for the bill’s official passage.
Democrats may be relying on people not understanding complex congressional rules to save face here, but don’t be fooled. If we can explain it in less than 350 words, we don’t think it’s too difficult for the average voter to grasp. At the end of the day, no matter how they might try to spin it, Senate Democrats are just as much to blame as Republicans for this disastrous funding bill. They may have been stuck between a rock and a hard place – no one’s denying that this was a difficult political moment – but they had all of the tools they needed to get themselves out of it.
We told you last week about why the bill was so terrible, but it bears repeating. For one thing, it cut the last $20 billion in enforcement funding that the IRS received through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which leaves the agency without the resources it needs to properly audit the oftentimes complicated tax returns of the ultra-wealthy. As a result, the wealthiest taxpayers will have a free pass to continue skirting their tax obligations, and our nation’s estimated $700 billion tax gap – i.e. the difference between taxes paid and owed, which is disproportionately driven by avoidance at the top – is bound to keep spiraling.
We also said that the bill further empowered President Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”) to continue to wreak havoc across the government as it grants them more control over federal spending. This is because the bill was a continuing resolution and not a regular appropriations bill. Continuing resolutions serve as stopgap measures to continue government funding at existing levels, which come in handy in moments when officials are approaching a government funding deadline but can’t reach a consensus in their negotiations. In contrast, regular appropriations bills are much more prescriptive with language clearly noting how funds must be spent.
The other difference between the two, however, is that regular appropriations bills come with reports that provide additional clarity on how funds are to be spent. Jeff Stein from The Washington Post gave a great example of this: “In the last fiscal year…an appropriations law allocated $3.2 billion for Environmental Protection Agency operations, and the accompanying report specified amounts devoted to cleaning brownfields, ensuring clean air, carrying out environmental justice programs and many other functions.” Meanwhile, continuing resolutions do not come with these additional reports, which will give Trump and Musk a fig leaf of legal cover in determining how funds are allocated.
In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor last Wednesday, Washington Senator Patty Murray outlined a number of the ways that Trump and his cronies may decide to redirect funding for their benefit. Here’s a particularly powerful excerpt from her speech that underscores what’s at stake:
“[Donald Trump and Elon Musk] could use the flexibilities being granted to them to override our constituents’ priorities: clean energy investments could become a payday for fossil fuels, money meant to stop fentanyl and opioids could fuel private prison operators and Trump’s mass deportations. This bill will let them pick which Army Corps, transit, and military construction projects move ahead—and which grind to a halt. And when it comes to programs that rural communities rely on, which do you think will get funded—housing, utilities, small business support? Well, it could all depend on who Trump wants to punish or extort.”
To be clear, the Patriotic Millionaires do not have a formal position on spending initiatives. (We’re all about the tax and revenue side of the equation, and ensuring that the wealthy pay their rightful share in taxes regardless of how officials decide to develop budget priorities.) But we felt that it was suitable for us to speak out in this instance because it involves power – and a lot of it. The fact that a billionaire president and his unelected billionaire “first buddy” could unilaterally decide who wins and loses with federal funding is antithetical to how a democracy works – but right on par with how an oligarchy does.
Which makes it all the more disheartening and outraging that Senate Democrats handed this win to Republicans on a silver platter. The last continuing resolution was passed on December 20, 2024, which means that Democrats had three full months to force Republicans to meet their demands over this latest funding bill. They had three full months to ensure that the IRS did not have a penny stripped from its funding. They had three full months to stop Trump, Musk, and the DOGE circus from getting any more power than they already have. And they blew it.
For better or worse, we will be in this position again in six months when government funding lapses on September 30th. Democrats in the Senate will once again have the power to, if necessary, block whatever funding bill Republicans come up with.
Before that time comes, it’s imperative that they learn lessons and take the temperature of the country. At town halls in recent weeks, constituents have expressed outrage over Trump and Republicans’ federal cuts. People have also taken their anger out on Elon Musk’s Tesla: across the country, charging stations have been set on fire, shots have been fired at dealerships, and vehicles have been vandalized.
You’d think that Democrats might experience a boost in popularity amidst so much rage at Trump and Republicans, but that’s not the case. According to new polls, Democrats’ approval rating has actually reached a record low.
Voters are not going to automatically back the opposition party if and when they’re angry at the ruling party. They want a full-blown, unified, and clear resistance to Trump and Musk, but they’re just not getting it from Democrats, who have instead taken to following the ill advice of longtime political operative James Carville to “roll over and play dead.”
But the game’s not over yet. Democrats have six months to turn the tide around. They have six months to come up with a plan to use the power that they will have in the negotiations over the next funding bill to protect the interests of working people. They have six months to come up with a proactive and bold policy agenda that will kickstart the resistance that voters want against Trump, Musk, and the rest of the oligarchs. They have six months to reassert themselves as the party of working people. And if saving our economy and democracy from Trump and Republicans isn’t enough of a motivation to do it, perhaps protecting their jobs in the 2026 midterms will be.
We hope that in six months’ time we can look back at this moment as the point when Democrats finally decided to get their act together. Until then, rest assured that the Patriotic Millionaires will do everything we can to push them to do it.