“We’re in a moment of maximum engagement”

 

Trump has attempted to govern by executive orders (largely unsuccessfully, thanks to the barrage of litigation that has been brought against the lawless regime), tied the economy up in knots with a tariff frenzy, and secured a continuing resolution in March thanks to the foolish capitulation of Senate Democrats.

Otherwise, he has accomplished none of his legislative objectives. Even more embarrassingly, MAGA Republicans are on defense, trying to pass a massively unpopular tax and spending bill. Part of their failure can be attributed to internal dysfunction, but popular protest and effective inside/outside maneuvering from House Democrats have played key roles.

House Democrats did not have the votes to stop the bill, but they made the vote razor close and exacted quite a pound of flesh from Republicans in the process. Democratic staff have provided a detailed account of the struggle Republicans went through to pass a widely disparaged bill that has caused the bond market to quiver and has drawn the ire of everyone from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

On Friday, May 16, the House Freedom Caucus Republicans rebuffed the House GOP leadership bill. But late Sunday night (the first of several late-night maneuvers underscoring the legislation’s unpopularity), the GOP-controlled Budget Committee sent the bill over to the Rules Committee.

Before dawn on Wednesday morning, the House Rules Committee convened to try to jam home the bill. House Democrats, lacking numbers to defeat the measure, nevertheless gummed up the works for hours. Inside the Capitol, Democrats, starting with House leadership, sent 100 members to testify for 20 hours with some 500 amendments.

This dragged out the debate during the day, requiring Republicans to do exactly what they did not want to do—take scores of votes defending a hugely unpopular bill. (It’s no coincidence that Democrats on the House Rules Committee had their act together; unlike other committees, these members are handpicked by the Minority Leader.)

Debate went late into Wednesday night, when the Democrats convened a House caucus meeting. According to a Democratic source, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R- N.Y.) told his members: “We’re in a moment of maximum engagement.” He added: “This is just one round in an epic contest. And they made this bill more extreme. It’s gonna make their swing-seat Republicans even more vulnerable.”

“We’re in a moment of maximum engagement.”

Just before midnight, Democrats tried to adjourn to give members time to make the slew of changes Republicans had rammed through. Republicans refused, meaning virtually no Republican took the time to read or review the bill in any detail. The bill finally came to the floor for a vote on Thursday morning at around 6:00 a.m. Every Democrat voted against it. The bill passed with the smallest margin (215-214), with two Republicans missing the vote, another two voting no, and one voting present.

House Democrats also played the outside game, as they have been doing from the time Democrats started showing up at GOP members’ town halls. At least a dozen Democrats went out in force on traditional media and, in a break with the past, sought out spots via new media to lambaste a scheme that would take away healthcare coverage, food aid, and green investments to fund tax cuts to the super-rich.

Democrats in the House, as they did in 2017 when the Affordable Care Act was on the chopping block, ultimately did not have the votes to stop the GOP bill. But they did the next best thing: they forced vulnerable House members to take rotten votes and make the bill unpalatable to many Senate Republicans—not to mention most Americans.

Jeffries told Republicans on the floor on Thursday, May 22: Because the American people are paying attention, they are smarter than you think, and they know when they are being hurt. They know when their interests are not being served, and they know when they have been lied to and deceived. Labeling Republicans as flunkies of Trump, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and billionaires, he could lay claim to Democrats being the party for ordinary Americans.

Outside activists can claim credit for having mobilized the public, focused the media on the egregious aspects of the bill, stiffened Democrats’ spines, added pressure on Republicans, and carried the message that this is a reverse Robin Hood bill that will come back to haunt Republicans. Senate Democrats, not known to be as vigorous and aggressive as their House counterparts, are now in the spotlight. Their challenge is to draw out enough Republican opponents to sink or hugely modify the bill.

It’s far from clear what will happen next. According to polling, the bill is unpopular, underwater in approval by double-digits. Rather than be the centerpiece of the GOP agenda, it has fast become an albatross around the necks of every Republican. Nevertheless, they have made egregious statements in defense of the bill, which includes the most devastating Medicaid cuts in history. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) provided Democrats with the talking point they could dream of: Republicans justifying cuts to Medicaid because “We’re all going to die.”

Faced with the devastating impact of the bill (e.g., 14 million people losing insurance, 22,000 deaths, nearly 100 rural hospitals being closed), Republicans are forced to lie about the bill. But that’s par for the course. “House Republicans lied to America. On the campaign trail in 2024, they promised to lower the high cost of living and disavowed Project 2025,” Jeffries told The Contrarian. “This year, the Republican majority has done nothing to make life more affordable for everyday Americans.”

Even business leaders are in panic mode. The Wall Street Journal related Jamie Dimon’s dire warning at the Reagan Nation Economic Club: “You are going to see a crack in the bond market, OK? It is going to happen.” The Journal explained, “Bond markets have been rattled by the prospect that the already wobbly fiscal situation in the U.S. will worsen, should tax legislation backed by President Trump become law.” The Journal confirmed it would add trillions to the deficit. (No wonder Rand Paul is up in arms.)

In sum, over the next couple of weeks, Democrats in the Senate and a united opposition throughout the country must make certain the public understands exactly what Republicans are trying to pull off. “For the rest of this Congress, House Democrats will continue to expose the so-called moderate Republicans who spent weeks pretending they would protect healthcare, nutritional assistance, and clean energy jobs — only to quickly cave to Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” Jeffries vowed.

If Republicans pass this nightmarish bill, their own constituents will suffer from severe Medicaid, SNAP, and green energy, setting them up for defeat in 2026. If they don’t pass it, the Trump tax cuts will expire, the MAGA base will be in an uproar, and Trump’s presidency will be in tatters. House Democrats deserve credit for carrying the ball this far; now it is up to Senate Democrats to keep the public engaged and fully expose GOP lies seeking to provide cover for a bill no one can defend on the merits.

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