Dems Threaten To Shut Down Govt To Stop Trump From Cutting Govt Programs

New Jersey’s two Democratic senators on Sunday suggested their party could shut down the federal government to stop President Donald Trump from cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs.

Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim told different news agencies that Democrats could refuse to pass a new spending bill by March 14.

“We are in a crisis right now, and Democrats will use every tool possible to protect Americans,” Booker said on CNN, according to The New York Times.

Kim suggested similar action on NBC, saying that if Democrats refused to pass a spending bill, they would blame it on Trump and Republicans by saying it was in opposition to spending cuts.

“I would be the last person to want to get to that stage,” Mr. Kim said of a possible government shutdown. “But we are at a point where we are basically on the cusp of a constitutional crisis.”

Shutting down the federal government could backfire on Democrats in a big way, however, as the government doesn’t fully shut down in such a situation. Essential services – like social security checks – continue to be disbursed, but every employee deemed “non-essential” is sent home. During the government shutdown in 2013, Americans discovered that just 6.6% of EPA employees were considered essential, for example. Citizens Against Government Waste also reported in 2013 that, on the whole, some 800,000 federal employees were deemed “non-essential” and put on furlough. “Essential” employees are determined to be those whose responsibilities include protecting public health, safety, or property. As CAGW wrote, by “allowing agencies to deem certain employees ‘non-essential,’ the government concedes that many employees are not vital to the agency’s mission.”

The government shut down twice during Trump’s first administration, once in January 2018 and again in late 2018/early 2019.

With Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) program auditing the federal government and looking for ways to cut spending, labeling government employees as “essential” or “non-essential” could be seen as putting a giant target on the backs of hundreds of thousands of employees.

The legality of Trump’s ability to reorganize the executive branch is a matter for the courts, and Democrats are certainly willing to use the legal system to keep government funds flowing, no matter how absurd the spending. As The Daily Wire reported, some of that spending went to DEI in Serbia, a DEI musical in Ireland, a “transgender opera” in Colombia, and a “transgender comic book” in Peru.