The Looming Budget Shutdown: Democrats Must Control The Narrative
- deanamiller
- Mar 10
- 2 min read
I heard this typical news headline on KYW News:
"A bid by the Republicans to avoid a government shutdown"
On its face, that is a misleading phrase, that Democrats need to redirect and reframe.
Republicans are not trying to avoid a shutdown, they are causing one.
That carelessly worded news headline also implies that if there would be a shutdown, that the Republicans wouldn't be responsible, that they tried to stop it, (and that by implication the opposition party, the Democrats, caused it).
Yes, it's true that Republicans are in the majority and they control the proceedings in Congress, and thus it would be their responsibility to propose a budget that would be passable by both parties.
But the Republicans are not trying to avoid a shutdown - in fact, they WANT a shutdown. That's the whole gist of Project 2025. Project 2025 is 900 pages of ways to reduce the size of government, not with a surgical scalpel, but with a meat ax. It's all there in writing. If they made all of the suggested cuts to government, it would be an effective shut-down of the whole government.
Republicans WANT to shutdown government, but they don't want to take the blame for that. So, they will try to shut down government, but make it look like Democrats are the ones who wanted to have a shutdown. They will put forth a budget that decimates government, knowing that Democrats will not accept it. Then when Democrats reject it, they will try to blame Democrats for the shutdown.
According to Indivisible: "If Congress does not pass a new spending bill by March 14, the government will shut down. And even though Republicans need Democratic votes to get one passed, they’re pushing for a MAGA spending bill that makes extreme funding cuts, attacks basic rights, and hands unchecked power over federal spending to Trump, Musk and their billionaire allies."
That Republicans want to shut down government - that is not the result of their actions - it is the end goal. This is nothing new, going back to Ronald Reagan, to Grover Norquist, to Ralph Reed. So, this should not be a surprise to Democrats. What is new, is the extreme extent of the cuts, not the end goal.
So, Democrats should get wise, and reframe the narrative in the news media, to make it clear that it's the Republicans, not the Democrats, who want to shutdown the government. The news media in general seems to be a bit dense in this regard. So, the onus is on the Democrats to make sure the news media gets it. The Democrats just need to be careful and persistent in controlling the narrative.
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