Final week, Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer introduced that Democrats can be in search of a restoration in funding to Medicare and to increase Obamacare subsidies within the upcoming authorities funding invoice. If Republicans refuse to return to the desk, Senator Schumer says Democrats will withhold their votes, forcing a authorities shutdown on the finish of the month.
Days earlier than Schumer’s announcement, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an occasion in Utah. Within the aftermath, President Donald Trump and his allies laid blame on the ft of Democrats and the left. In a speech from the Oval Workplace on Thursday, Trump vowed that his administration would “discover each a type of who contributed to this atrocity and to different political violence, together with the organizations that fund it and assist it.” Some are arguing that within the midst of this heightened rhetoric, selecting a struggle over the price range may give Trump license to additional his authoritarian goals. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland thinks it’s definitely worth the danger.
In an interview with At present, Defined, Van Hollen stated “there are at all times dangers, however once more, it’s Republicans and the Trump White Home that might be taking this danger, as a result of they may clearly be seen to be going it alone, attempting to basically impose complete one-party rule on the nation.” Senator Van Hollen believes that the Republicans have extra to lose by withholding concessions than the Democrats do by holding the road.
Under is an excerpt of Senator Van Hollen’s dialog with At present, Defined host Noel King, edited for size and readability. There’s far more within the full podcast, so hearken to At present, Defined wherever you get podcasts, together with Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Schumer and minority chief Hakeem Jeffries have set their phrases for avoiding a authorities shutdown. They need Republicans to reverse Medicaid cuts and to increase the Obamacare subsidies. What’s your place on a shutdown?
Nicely, at first, we shouldn’t be giving President Trump a clean test to proceed his lawless actions, together with his unlawful withholding of funds from — for instance, NIH [the National Institutes of Health], the place individuals are present process scientific trials for most cancers — and he’s withholding funds that would actually imply a dying sentence for them. And the GAO, the Authorities Accountability Workplace, has discovered that he’s illegally impounding, withholding these funds. And so, we are able to’t give them a clean test with out guardrails and safeguards to be sure that that gained’t occur.
What do guardrails and safeguards seem like? What particularly are you after right here?
So, for instance, the Republicans within the Senate and the Home voted for this so-called rescission package deal, that means that they voted to undo assets, appropriations that they beforehand voted for. You may make that a lot tougher to do by requiring, for instance, a 60-vote margin to go it.
You may also do different issues, Noel. For instance, if the president have been to have interaction in an unlawful rescission, you possibly can have an throughout the board speedy reduce in White Home appropriations. So, there are issues you are able to do if Republicans have been prepared to hitch us, however thus far, they’re not prepared to tackle President Trump in any approach.
The nation was in a really comparable place again in March of this 12 months. And the priority again then was that, if Democrats shut down the federal government, they might find yourself taking the blame. They might find yourself alienating voters. Is {that a} concern this time round?
Nicely, this might be the Trump administration and Republicans within the Congress shutting down the federal government, as a result of they resolve to go it alone. They resolve to have a one-way road. They resolve to provide President Trump a clean test for his lawless exercise. And I don’t assume the American individuals wish to see President Trump get a complete clean test, as a result of they’ve seen that he’s withholding monies from issues like FEMA and locations which have been hit by disasters and refuse to supply funding for catastrophe aid. He’s withholding funds from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. In reality, by our calculation proper now, they’re withholding about $400 billion of funds for vital priorities for the present fiscal 12 months we’re in, which ends in only a few weeks. So, in the event that they’re doing that now, he’ll do it once more until we cease it.
Within the first half of the present, our colleague Andrew Prokop proposed this as one potential situation: An prolonged shutdown leads Republicans to imagine that Democrats are abusing the filibuster, and they also finish the filibuster. And so, that implies that Republicans not want any Democrats to vote with them, and so they can do no matter they need. He’s portray the shutdown as fairly a harmful risk for Democrats. What do you consider that?
There are at all times dangers, however once more, it’s Republicans and the Trump White Home that might be taking this danger, as a result of they may clearly be seen to be going it alone, attempting to basically impose complete one-party rule on the nation. Trump’s form of authoritarian impulses would haven’t any checks and no balances on them.
With respect to Republicans eliminating the filibuster, I feel they acknowledge that extra democracy within the Senate and the Home doesn’t favor them in the long term. I imply, I’ve been an advocate for ending what’s referred to as the supermajority requirement to finish a filibuster; you’d nonetheless have ample debate for weeks or months, however on the finish of the day, you’d convey debate to an in depth with 51 votes. Republicans have been in a position to do what they need with out doing that. So, for instance, they use the reconciliation course of to go massive tax cuts for the very wealthy and reduce applications for working Individuals. We noticed them do that within the so-called “massive, stunning invoice,” which is gorgeous in the event you’re a billionaire however stinks for everyone else. So, the massive issues Republicans love to do, like tax cuts, they get to do even with the filibuster in place. I don’t assume the Republicans will go down that highway, as a result of the supermajority requirement [that currently exists] to finish a filibuster favors their agenda, not the individuals’s agenda.
After the conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was killed by a shooter final week, President Trump in a speech from the Oval Workplace blamed, quote, “the unconventional left.” He vowed to, quote, “discover each a type of who contributed to this atrocity and to different political violence, together with the organizations that fund it and assist it.”
This strikes individuals as a probably very regarding menace to free speech, civil liberties. Have the occasions of the previous week modified your thoughts in any respect about the way you method the Trump administration? What do you assume the president is saying right here?
I’m very, very alarmed by what the president’s saying. There’s no room for political violence in our discourse. We are able to have sturdy debates with out it veering into violence, and there needs to be no vengeance. President Trump had an opportunity to convey the nation collectively to say that political violence is unacceptable no matter its supply, however as a substitute, he’s determined to have interaction in finger pointing. As an alternative, he’s weaponizing this terrible tragedy, this homicide, to advance his political targets, which embrace going after what he calls of us on the left, which, in Trump world, means anyone who disagrees with Donald Trump. So sure, it’s very regarding that he would threaten to make use of the complete energy and devices of the federal authorities to actually go after individuals who disagree with him.
There’s a lot at stake for Democrats right here. As you’ve been saying, polling exhibits that Individuals are actually displeased with the get together and never simply most of the people. Democrats themselves usually are not proud of the get together. In August, an Related Press ballot of Democrats noticed individuals utilizing phrases like “weak,” “tepid,” “ineffective,” and “damaged” to explain their very own get together. What do you assume is occurring right here?
Nicely, I don’t assume the Democrats have performed sufficient to face as much as Donald Trump’s lawlessness, nor do I feel Democrats have performed sufficient to place ahead our personal constructive imaginative and prescient of what we might do, together with taking up very highly effective particular pursuits and combating as a substitute for the frequent good and the general public curiosity.
I used to be invited simply over the weekend to talk to the Polk County, Iowa, Democratic Celebration, and I laid out precisely that argument: that extra must be performed to face as much as Donald Trump on this second. However clearly in 2024, the American individuals, nearly all of the American individuals, didn’t belief us to tackle the established order and tackle these particular pursuits. And so, I imagine we must be far more clear not solely about what we’re combating in opposition to, however what we’re combating for.
At that occasion on Saturday, you additionally endorsed Zohran Mamdani. You criticized different Democratic leaders for delaying on endorsing him. You referred to one thing that you simply referred to as “spineless politics.” What’s occurring? What’s Mamdani doing that you simply like?
What I stated was, as we put together to attempt to win majorities within the Home and the Senate in 2026, we have to first win the 2025 races. We’ve massive races in Virginia and New Jersey for the governor seats, nice candidates, and we additionally have to win the mayoral race in New York Metropolis. I identified that Donald Trump has spent an enormous period of time and assets attempting to defeat Mamdani. Mamdani’s platform was individuals who work in New York ought to be capable of afford to dwell in New York, which might be good for individuals in New York Metropolis; and Des Moines, Iowa; and in Maryland; and all through the nation. And but, you’ve got these very highly effective massive cash, particular pursuits — monetary pursuits combining with Donald Trump to attempt to defeat Mamdani. And so, I do assume it is a second the place Democrats want to face up for the one who is combating to scale back prices and be sure that individuals can afford to dwell the place they work.
