Earlier this month, Senate Democrats seemingly faced two bad options concerning the Republican spending measure: either let the government shut down or vote in lockstep with GOP senators on a bill that would surrender much more spending discretion to the executive branch.
Both would give President Donald Trump and his billionaire aide Elon Musk — the de facto co-president and head of the non-department Department of Government Efficiency — much more power in their unconstitutional endeavor to decimate the federal government from the inside out.
While a vast majority of congressional Democrats opted to oppose the bill and Trump’s agenda, just enough went the other way, allowing Republicans to reach the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.
One of those Democrats who voted with the GOP was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the most powerful elected official in the Democratic Party.