Many Democrats believe the White House is bluffing and insist Republicans will bear responsibility for a shutdown in the public eye because the GOP controls the government.

The Trump administration is expecting a government shutdown come Wednesday and there are no current plans to negotiate with Democratic leadership, according to a senior White House official.

“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss political strategy, adding that Democrats “will pay a huge price for this.”

The comments underscore the White House’s belief that Democrats will be blamed for a shutdown and its ripple effects, which could include mass layoffs across the federal government.

  • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    The Democrats messaging, as always, has been abysmal on this. They should have been hitting the airwaves since the last vote preparing public for this to happen and - rightly - putting the responsibility on the GOP who owns both sides of congress and the presidency.

      • Kühlschrank@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Of course, and yet SOME effort from the Dems would not go unnoticed. Politics today is so overwhelmingly based on vibes today and to not try to influence that is political malpractice.

        • Eldritch@piefed.world
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          4 days ago

          Not that the Democrats do good things often enough. But even when they do. Almost no one notices. It would absolutely go unnoticed.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I say this as a government employee: shut it down. I don’t want to be looking for a new job in Trump’s economy, but we’re long past the point where we can fight this authoritarianism without risking anything.

    • DrPop@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Me too, as hard as a government shut down will be on my family it’s necessary to preserve liberties.

  • Asafum@feddit.nl
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    4 days ago

    Don’t we go though this every time? I could swear “we” settled on “the public blames the party that forced the shutdown” not the party in power.

    • TheLunatickle@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      Seems more like Americans always blame the democrats. It’s like the country just expects the Republicans to be reprehensible pieces of morally bankrupt shit.

      • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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        4 days ago

        It’s like a dysfunctional family. People don’t blame Dad for getting drunk, they blame Aunt Helen for pointing it out and getting him mad.

      • kreskin@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Pretty much spot on. The problem is that the only way to fight the republicans is with an effective Democratic party. Theres zero hope we could ever change the republican party, but theres some small hope of changing the democrats. Thus people focus on the democrats first.

    • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
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      4 days ago

      Actually, the public blames whoever they want, per usual. People like when their party holds out for things they like, and people dislike when the other party holds out for things the don’t like. People believe what they want, when they want, please see someone asking why Obama wasn’t helping more during 9/11 (technically unrelated but my favorite example of people just willing to hate on a dem while just being so verifiably wrong): https://youtube.com/shorts/4v5Yoo9xLyw

      Same as people not liking congress, but often liking THEIR congressperson. People don’t care about the facts. Though I believe there’s no real winning move for Dems at the moment. They have completely failed as a party and as an opposition party and if this is where they push back it will result in bad outcomes for their constituents, but they won’t be able to justify those bad outcomes with any actual results.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Every day they delay is one more chance for Trump to stroke out and die before he can go full genocidal dictator. Considering his age and those health rumors I’d say that’s a win.

        • imrighthere@lemmy.ca
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          4 days ago

          If trump dies, nothing changes. Do you honestly think that drooling, sniveling shitbag is running anything other than his mouth ?

          • krashmo@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            It doesn’t matter what he does, it matters what people believe he does. To his base Trump is MAGA. Without him I don’t think they have anywhere near the cohesive movement that they do currently.

  • Deflated0ne@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Let’s be real. They likely will blink. The dems almost as a rule always have just enough turncoats on hand to ensure the Rs get everything they want and they themselves can’t ever get anything done.

    I expect nothing from them. But im open to being surprised.

  • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Shut it down! It’s not functioning correctly. Let’s spin up a new one while the old one reboots.

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    4 days ago

    If Democrats are smart they would be out there 24/7 telling the public that Trump has refused to work with the Democrats and remind them that Republicans have the votes to go out alone per Trump’s orders.

    And then let Republicans Mike pence themselves in a lose lose scenario and then go back on the air 24/7 doing the Scrubs I told you so dance.

    Because right now, I literally have conservatives at work saying to everyone, including government people, about the pending Democrat shutdown.

    • Drusas@fedia.io
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      You know those same people would be saying the same thing even if Democrats were shouting it from the rooftops that this is Trump’s and the Republicans’ fault. Odds are good that they wouldn’t even see any information on it in their conservative bubbles.

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        I know but you know why they’re saying this right? Because everyone in their bubble is out there saying this from the top, especailly from the top all the way down the the bottom of the barrel 24/Fucking 7/365.

        Something that Democrats absolutely sucks balls at.

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    If Chuck Schumer blinks, he loses the right to ever say “TACO Trump” again.

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    4 days ago

    While the Democrats surely will be blamed (they have proven time and again that they are too incompetent to spin this correctly), falling flat will have worse consequences.

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      4 days ago

      The cognitive dissonance is almost unbearable. I thought conservatives hated the government? Shouldn’t they be celebrating a shutdown? They are literally getting what they want.

    • blave@lemmy.world
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      Trump is using more layoffs during the shutdown as a threat to get rid of employees that don’t “align with his political agenda“.

      But this isn’t much of a threat to the Democrats, especially because they all know he’s gonna do some bullshit like that anyway, and appeasing him now will just embolden him.

      • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Yeah, he’s already played the mass RIF hand. He’s going to try to make it happen with/without a shutdown.

        Also, anyone slightly aware of things knows a shutdown doesn’t cause mass layoffs, that’s all Republicans.

    • Clathrate_Gun@lemmy.zip
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      It could cause “mass layoffs across the federal government.”

      Oh yeah he wants this bad. It’s a fast track to getting what he wants. Doge not necessary.