Democrats aren’t sending their best.
In response to the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down various government agencies and slash waste, fraud and abuse, Democrats are threatening a government shutdown.
On Sunday, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) suggested that Republicans looking to continue government spending past March 14 are going to withhold support, leaving Speaker Mike Johnson without allies against fiscally conservative Republican lawmakers who have repeatedly voiced strenuous opposition to out-of-control spending.
“Look, if we have to take steps to be able to hold them accountable, use the leverage that we have to force it, I cannot support efforts that will continue this lawlessness that we’re seeing when it comes to this administration’s actions,” Kim said during an appearance on NBC News‘s “Meet the Press.”
“And for us to be able to support government funding in that way only for them to turn it around to dismantle the government, that is not something that should be allowed,” Kim continued, adding “This is on them.”
As Jonathan Turley notes, this is like “threatening vegans with a beef ban.”
According to the Washington Post, Kim is one of several Democratic senators freaking out over the effective shutdown of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) after Elon Musk’s DOGE team showed up at the agency’s headquarters and identified billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.
Of note, Trump and Musk have made deep cuts and sweeping changes to 15 government agencies, including USAID, the Department of the Treasury, and the Office of Personnel Management.
“I’ve worked through multiple government shutdowns; I would be the last person to want to get to that stage,” said Kim. “But we are at a point where we are basically on the cusp of a constitutional crisis, seeing this administration taking steps that are so clearly illegal. And until we see a change in that behavior, we should not allow and condone that, nor should we assist in that.”