| | | Don Surber
Shutdown backfires on Democrats
Unlike Obama, Trump is delivering hard, smoking pitches up and inside.
CNBC reported:
The Trump administration has frozen about $18 billion for two major infrastructure projects in New York City pending a review to ensure that funding is not “flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles,” a top official said Wednesday.
The funding is earmarked for the Hudson River Tunnel Project known as Gateway, and the Second Avenue Subway project, said Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Vought’s announcement came on the first day of the shutdown of the U.S. government after Congress failed to pass stopgap funding bills that would have kept federal agencies and services operating at normal capacity for at least another seven weeks.
The Trump administration has blamed the two top Democrats in Congress—Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries—for that shutdown. Both Democrats are from New York City.
Maybe next time the state and its corrupt judges will think twice before trying to bankrupt a man for taking out a loan and repaying it with interest. Democrats played hardball. Now Donald John Trump is back on the mound.
As pitcher Mudcat Grant used to say, it is time for a little chin music. That means a pitch up and in and barely under the chin. He was tough. Beat Don Drysdale 8-2 in the first game of the World Series in 1965.
Pitcher Trump’s designated hitter is Vought, which provides Democrats with a new face to sling mud at. They have exhausted themselves and their supporters trying to demonize Trump. They need a surrogate to attack. JD Vance is too cuddly. With the beard, he looks like a Teddy bear—albeit the mean talking one from the Ted movies.
Enter Bad Man.
Bwa-ha-ha. Trump just dropped Project 2025 on Democrats.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune is panicking the Democrats, warning that Russ Vought is a madman. He’s out of control!
“This is the risk of shutting down the government and handing the keys to Russ Vought,” Thune told Politico, which then reported:
Thune spoke on the same day that several Republicans aired discomfort with Vought’s moves after the shutdown went into effect. Rep. Mike Lawler of New York spoke out against his decision to hold up major transportation projects in his state, while Reps. Blake Moore of Utah and Brian Babin of Texas spoke up on a private House GOP call with Vought raising qualms about potential mass layoffs.
Vought’s actions also risk being a distraction for Republicans, who have sought to stick to a simple message putting the onus on Democrats to reopen the government. Pressed on whether Vought was muddying the waters, Thune said, “The only thing I would say about that is yes, and we don’t control what he’s going to do.”
Vought is Trump’s secret weapon on policy. He pairs well with Trump’s not-so-secret weapon, Stephen Miller.
Now then, Sun Tzu said, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
Trump gamed the government shutdown out well in advance of the 2024 election. He figured a way to use the Habuki theater of a shutdown to actually shut the government down. No one has done that before. Instead presidents have played silly games and used the shutdown to panic the public into demanding more borrowing, more spending and more regulations than our Founding Fathers ever imagined or wanted.
During a government shutdown in 2013, Obama barricaded open-air memorials to thwart World War II veterans from visiting them in a passive-aggressive move by the community organizer. Gardens aren’t the only place you find pansies.
Obama attacked military veterans who won World War II. Weird that a Hawaiian would do that after the military avenged Pearl Harbor. Someone born in colonial Kenya might because they hated the British government and rooted for Japan, but he was born in Hawaii.
Trump is no community organizer. He is not hanging curtains. He is playing hardball. He is closing the Democrat Party’s checking accounts. He is using this crisis to cut the government.
Politico looked at the map and said, “The White House is targeting Democratic states with its first wave of cuts to federal projects following the government shutdown, impacting billions of dollars in funding for energy and infrastructure in New York, California and elsewhere.”
I don’t know much about animal care but I do know the way to get a donkey’s attention is to smack it in the snout with a two-by-four. Trump now has the full attention of the Democrat Party.
Upgrade to paid
The New York Times complained:
The Trump administration took steps on Wednesday to maximize the pain of the government shutdown, halting billions of dollars in funds for Democratic-led states while readying a plan to lay off potentially droves of civil servants imminently.
The moves by the White House appeared both unprecedented and punitive, underscoring the risks of a fiscal stalemate that had no end in sight. It also evinced how President Trump might try to leverage the government-wide closure to achieve his agenda, slash the budget and exact revenge on his political enemies.
In a series of social media posts, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, said the administration had paused or moved to cancel the delivery of about $26 billion in previously approved funds across a range of programs, describing the money as wasteful or in need of further review.
His message to Democrats is clear: It sucks to be you.
They don’t like it. The Politico story quoted Congressman George Latimer, who said, “Political revenge. Clearly outlined by Trump, time and again. He sees the U.S. as Blue and Red, and Blue states are enemies. As he has said many times, he hates his enemies; he is the retribution. Has he announced any rescission of any projects in Florida or Texas?”
Of course not. Why would he? Florida and Texas did not try to imprison him over a bogus 34-count indictment for paying off a hooker. (Excuse me, horse-faced porn star.)
It is not like he didn’t warn them and it is not like 77 million Americans didn’t vote for this.
The loss of all that beautiful money has Democrats getting testy.
The New York Post reported:
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough unleashed on his co-host and wife Mika Brzezinski during a debate over this week’s government shutdown—yelling at her on air after she argued that Democrats shouldn’t take any of the blame.
During Morning Joe on Wednesday, a panel of guests debated which party should face the blame for the government shutdown—the first since President Trump’s first term in 2018—when Brzezinski spoke out in defense of Dems.
“So they’re not only repeating the lies but adding to this coarseness and there’s no consequence to it, and we’re blaming the Democrats? We’re blaming the Democrats for this. What exactly are the Democrats supposed to do?”
That’s when her husband, Scarborough—who appeared to be in another studio as the two spoke in a split-screen format—angrily jumped in.
“They’re supposed to fight back!” he yelled.
Brzezinski shot back: “And lie as well? Like what exactly?”
“No! No! Bill Clinton just completely abused and used Republicans in every government shutdown. I know, I was there. He was smart enough politically to do it. Barack Obama knew how to always get the best of Republicans, all right?” Scarborough ranted.
Who doesn’t like a girl fight? Sadly, there was no hair pulling.
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By the way, Clinton’s actions in that government shutdown that Joe praised included a tryst with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky. That’s some victory. She became the only thing history will remember Bill for.
The affair also cost Hillary her attempted presidency. If you can’t take care of your husband, how can you take care of the country?
But that was 30 years ago. This time, Trump’s large and in charge. The beatings and the memes will continue until morale completely collapses for Democrats.
On Thursday, the Department of Energy announced “the termination of 321 financial awards supporting 223 projects, resulting in a savings of approximately $7.56 billion dollars for American taxpayers. Following a thorough, individualized financial review, DOE determined that these projects did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs, were not economically viable, and would not provide a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.”
Another $7.56 billion in boondoggles gone. You cannot collect bribes and kickbacks from a canceled project.
If Democrats were smart, they’d cave right now and write off their losses.
But if Democrats were smart, they wouldn’t be Democrats. |
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