To the Editor:
In Negotiations, the party who refuses to deal is the one who bears the burden of an impasse. The Democrats did not cause the Shutdown. It was the Republicans who sent Congress home to prevent any settlement (and avoid the Epstein vote). The terms of the disappointing “deal” gave Democrats some achievements: furloughed and fired workers will return to their jobs, with back pay, contrary to Trump’s wishes.
Part of the agreement with the caving Democrats was a commitment by Republican negotiators to take a separate vote on the ACA extension, which Speaker Johnson has already negated, “I am not committing to it or not not committing to it.” So, it was a “pinkie-promise,” the only value of which, once again, will be to demonstrate to the voters how little this administration cares about the well-being of ordinary people.
Democrats’ biggest failure, even beyond believing Republican congressional promises, was to fail to account for the depth of Trump’s jealousy-hate for the man whose name is colloquially on “Obamacare.” It has long been Trump’s personal quest to destroy “Obamacare,” and the man himself, as he has advertised. And he has not produced his promised “better than Obamacare.”
There was one incredibly illuminating discovery in the negotiations. The entire nation now knows the lengths to which Republicans will go to punish people who reject their demands. Not just Democrats, but every voter in every state now knows that there are no limits to the pain and privation that Trump and the Republican Congress will impose to get their way, including withholding food assistance for families, even though directed by a court to disburse it. Trump immediately appealed the lower court order so he could continue to withhold SNAP funds, despite the desperate pleas from the poorest red states. No one can say that they haven’t gotten a glimpse into the soul of the GOP and its Grand Poo-Bah.
Our president holds daily “fireside chats” from the Resolute Desk in the newly-signed Oval, in gold, natch. Where, no matter the question, he delivers stream-of-consciousness concoctions to the world, and recites his greatest hits (his physician thinks he is a “magnificent specimen,” more so than Obama; that he was robbed by sinister but unproven forces of reelection in 2020; that every president except himself was a dumbbell and dud, with the occasional exceptions of Washington and Lincoln; and that there is no inflation, jobs are plentiful, and the tariffs are bringing in either billions or trillions, depending on how breakfast went.
In a recent interview with Fox’s Laura Ingraham, Trump blamed the Democrats for a “rigged system” to make people think that costs are up, when “costs are way down.” “More than anything else, it’s a con job by the Democrats.” Trump always blames someone else for his messes, and this time he is blaming us, and our lying eyes and experiences. “We have the greatest economy we’ve ever had,” he insisted.
One major issue confronting us and the WH will be the SCOTUS decision on whether Trumps Rorschach Tariffs are legal. The Constitution gives the tariff taxing power to Congress, unless there is a demonstrable National Emergency. Trump alone decided on the bumper-car tariffs, based on his assertion of a “national economic emergency” for which no proof exists. He tried to pre-empt SCOTUS by warning that to deny his case would be to threaten “another Depression,” make us a “Third World Country,” and that “no court” should be allowed to interfere with his Unitary Power. What he has been saying since P2025.
Last week’s off-year elections can be fairly described as a near-landslide for Democratic candidates. Most Republicans dismissed it as anecdotal. It was fun watching them try to spin it.
Kelly Scoles,
Fillmore, Ca.