House Democrats are known to be wary of playing any kind of role in shutting down the government. Hell, they hate being perceived as having even considered the idea that a government shutdown could do them political good.
During the 118th Congress, they routinely bailed out a narrow Republican majority when GOP lawmakers just couldn’t pass their own agenda. But now, in the age of Elon and DOGE and with the latest government funding deadline approaching and the House Republican majority as narrow and fractious as ever, there’s real skepticism that Democrats will save Republican leaders from their own failures.
Republican lawmakers certainly are concerned, as evidenced by the fact that they’re already blaming Democrats for not bailing them out.
“Republicans do not have the votes to keep government open on our own,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.). “So if Democrats want to shut it down, they can.”
Such spin runs hard into some pretty obvious realities. As Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, noted to The Bulwark, Republicans hold the agenda-setting White House, comfortably control the Senate, and maintain a House majority, their whisper-thin two-seat margin notwithstanding. With a governing trifecta come opportunities but also responsibilities.
“Who’s in charge? White House, House, and Senate,” DeLauro said. “They got it all. They got the trifecta. Where are they? They can’t govern.”
While Democrats still don’t want the perception of cheering on a shutdown, the party has also grown convinced that it must secure some concession from Republicans in any government funding arrangement. House Democrats aren’t eager to cut a deal with an administration that has thrown government contracts, appropriated funds, and whole agencies into a woodchipper without lawmakers’ input, let alone consent.