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Notes -
Senate ends shutdown.
With no provision to extend COVID-era ACA subsidies, merely a vote, it has the appearance and character of a Democrat loss. The usual suspects on Reddit are crying foul of cowardice.
But could it have ended any other way? The Democrats are obliged to government unions, who weren't being paid: and to the urban poor, who weren't getting SNAP. Two massive interests within their base were being sacrificed for the benefit of... four million recipients? The math never added up.
You could say that the Republicans were heartless, but they have come out of it looking like fighters and winners, while the Democrats have capitulated to 'fascists'. The midterms will still probably be a Dem victory, but this act by Schumer and the moderates will not be something the #resistance will be likely to forget anytime soon.
As Hunter S Thompson once said, if you're about to get your ass kicked and you're outnumbered, don't curl up and become a soccer ball. That just makes kicking your ass fun and will greatly deepen the beating you will take. At least become a soccer ball with teeth, so that there's some small risk to them.
The Democrats, lacking any real power in Congress, need not utterly just take whatever the Republicans want to hand down. They don't have to make it fun for them. At the minimum they can make the process so miserable for everyone that perhaps the Republicans will go easier next time.
It's not a great strategy, but it's all they have.
If you're Thune, what do you lose from pressing on this again in January? The main groups hurt by a shutdown are core dem voters (I'd bet fed employees vote D by a 40+ margin, donations do).
Fliers are probably closer to 50/50 but if the administration can keep EAS payments that's easier to do. Keeping a bonus pool available for key essential employees could allow these to last a very long time.
Let's presume you are a Fed employee and have several weeks or even months of savings. A shut down happens. You dont go to work until it's over. Once it is over, you receive backpay for the time you didnt have to go to work. Since you work for the government, you dont really put in overtime to catch back up (at least I think this part is true).
Why should federal employees be a big source of shutdown opposition?
What fraction of federal employees keep months of savings around? I know a few that do, but I suspect that a non-trivial fraction, like a lot of Americans, live close enough to paycheck-to-paycheck that a few months is asking a lot.
But I'm sure at least some basically got a free month of unplanned vacation.
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