Five Quick Things: Welcome to the Briar Patch, Chuck Schumer – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

I’m writing this installment of the 5QT on a Thursday afternoon, one day before we’re supposed to see a showdown in the U.S. Senate over a 99-page continuing resolution covering federal spending between now and September.

Nobody on the Right likes continuing resolutions. Since they became the means of funding the federal government, our national debt has skyrocketed, and a budget that used to be somewhat near balance — in the late 1990, we actually managed to run a surplus — has turned into a nation-destroying $2 trillion deficit.

So, no, a continuing resolution is a terrible idea. Except it’s what we have. And though the one up for passage doesn’t present a balanced budget, there’s a strategy afoot — which is to get the country to September with a slightly-rearranged and ever-so-slightly smaller federal fisc, and between now and September we could see a rescission bill that would include cuts to reflect the savings that Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency and Russ Vought’s Office of Management and Budget have been finding among the various governmental agencies.

And then, by September, the budget for the next fiscal year could be approved through regular order.

It sounds more or less conventional. It’s been quite a while since Congress has passed any rescission bills of note, but they’re not unprecedented. And getting back to budgeting in regular order, while it’s a national imperative, seems like a rather boring and mundane thing to do.

Except this plan has set Washington, and particularly Democrat Washington, on fire.

1. They Can’t Win This

I wouldn’t bet against this changing at the last minute, but as of Thursday afternoon, it looks an awful lot like the Democrats are going to filibuster the budget continuing resolution in the Senate and, in so doing, cause a government shutdown at midnight on Friday.

Senate Democrats are dancing with the devil in the sinister form of a Schumer shutdown.

Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) announced Wednesday afternoon following a lunch with his Democrat caucus that he would reject a House-passed government plan to keep the government funded past the Friday deadline through the end of the fiscal year, September 30.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR.”

Legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes to invoke cloture – a necessary step in ending debate and advancing a bill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is calling Schumer’s bluff. He moved forward Wednesday evening to schedule a vote to invoke cloture Friday.

Thune has 53 Republicans to Schumer’s 47 Democrats, although Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has stated he will oppose the CR. Therefore, eight Democrats will be needed to invoke cloture and fast track the bill.

The relatively-clean continuing resolution (CR) totals only 99 pages, and includes minimal modifications to current spending levels — including $485 million for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested by President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, to facilitate continued deportations.

Outside of those minor modifications, Democrats overwhelmingly supported these spending levels in December, although freezing current spending levels throughout an entire fiscal year would be a monumental achievement for Republican spending hawks.

If you remember your Br’er Rabbit, you know the story of the briar patch…

And that’s what the government shutdown is for the Trump administration and the GOP at the moment.

As Punchbowl News notes, there are two likely possibilities here, and both of them are disastrous for the Dems…

There are two basic ways this week can go.

1) What we wrote Wednesday morning is emerging as the most appealing scenario to Democrats. They would provide the votes needed for cloture in exchange for Senate Republican leaders granting them an amendment vote on the Democrats’ CR proposal, which would extend government funding until April 11.

That would permit Democrats to go on record opposing a shutdown while allowing Republicans to pass the House’s CR on their own.

This play really wouldn’t achieve anything substantive for Schumer. It’s theater.

The Democrats’ 28-day CR won’t have the votes needed to pass, even at a simple majority threshold. It’s really a face-saving measure for Democrats who want to show their base that they’re fighting back against President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE. Several progressive groups released statements Wednesday night praising Schumer and Senate Democrats for their hardline stance on the House CR. We’ll see how these groups react after this showdown runs its course.

Democrats have also been making the case that a shutdown in this particular moment could be one of the worst in history. The issue was a major focus of Democrats’ lunch meeting on Wednesday, which can be interpreted as a sign of where things are headed. More on that in a bit.

…

2) Maybe Schumer and Senate Democrats will hold the line and block the House-drafted CR. This would push the federal government into a shutdown.

Two Democratic senators who were thought to be in play for cloture — Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and John Hickenlooper of Colorado — said Wednesday night that they’d be a no on the Republican CR. Hickenlooper went as far as to say he’ll be a no on cloture too. So the field of potential Democratic “yes” votes for cloture is dwindling.

Now remember: OMB has massive leeway in a government shutdown. They decide when exactly a shutdown begins. The full effects wouldn’t be felt until Monday at the earliest.

Yet “lapses in appropriations” can cause lots of pain. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers could be furloughed. White House sources tell us that the Trump administration would make it very painful for Democrats as they decide what agencies and services remain open. Democrats are very aware of this, too.

At some point, Congress would have to reopen the government. Maybe a shutdown would force Republicans to the table. Or alternatively, Democrats may simply have to cave at some point. Some Democrats believe their options to get out of a shutdown would be worse than the House-passed CR.

Russ Vought is, at this point, the king of the Washington briar patch. A government shutdown that is forced by the Democrats takes Congress out of the governing mix until something does pass and in turn puts the power of the purse squarely in Vought’s hands.

You’ve noticed all of these meddling Obama and Biden and Clinton judges trying to force the rehiring of federal workers and the reinstallation of left-wing government programs? Well, guess what? None of those orders mean anything if there’s a government shutdown. Vought and his people will simply declare the whole lot “non-essential” and shut them all down.

And the average American wouldn’t feel a thing.

It’s either that or let the CR go through and then suffer the pain of a rescission bill, which institutes the DOGE and OMB cuts, making for a new reality that will either be reflected in a real budget passed in September or the next continuing resolution that funds the government.

This is what a checkmate looks like. It’s mind-blowing that Republicans on Capitol Hill have managed to pull it off, but as of right now, one party is perfectly happy in the briar patch, and the other is just getting stuck.

2. Rahm Emanuel and Gay Mayor Pete? Yes, Please

More good news this week: Failed former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who left office several years ago nearly universally hated by the people of that town, is babbling about running for president…

Rahm Wants to Run.

Yes, that Rahm. And, yes, for that office — the presidency.

“I’ve only been back two months, I have no idea what I’m doing,” Rahm I. Emanuel, operative-turned-politician-turned-diplomat told me before adding his stock line since returning from serving as ambassador to Japan. “I’m not done with public service and I’m hoping public service is not done with me.”

Ignore that evasion. Rahm Emanuel is voting with his feet.

Since coming home in January from his stint in Tokyo — a job he repurposed to be American envoy to all of Asia — Emanuel has been as visible as any other Democrat. Never mind that he currently holds no office and hasn’t been on a ballot for a decade.

Name the political podcast and Emanuel has likely been on it or will be shortly. He immediately snagged a CNN contract and regular Washington Post column, no small accomplishment for a former official at a moment of retrenchment for news organizations.

The denials are ridiculous, of course. Write-ups like the one Johnathan Martin offered up at Politico don’t happen unless they’re goosed by the candidate.

Speaking of goosings, there is also this…

Pete Buttigieg announced Thursday he will not run for Michigan’s governorship or the state’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2026, setting up a potential presidential bid in 2028.

“I care deeply about who Michigan will elect as Governor and send to the U.S. Senate next year, but I have decided against competing in either race. I remain enthusiastic about helping candidates who share our values — and who understand that in this moment, leadership means not only opposing today’s cruel chaos, but also presenting a vision of a better alternative,” Buttigieg said in an X post.

Buttigieg called fellow Michigan Democrats on Thursday morning to tell them of his decision, which was first reported by Politico.

A source familiar with Buttigieg’s thinking said his decision sets him up in the strongest possible position to run for president in 2028. The source said running for governor or Senate in 2026 would have taken that option off the table. (RELATED: The ‘Peter Principle’ Targets Michigan)

There could be less charismatic options for the Democrats in 2028 — corpulent trans-monger J.B. Pritzker and philandering social-media magpie Chris Murphy will give almost anybody a run for their money when it comes to noxious politics and both names have been floated of late — but if you’re looking for somebody you’d love to run against in the next presidential cycle, Buttigieg and Emanuel are dreams come true.

I keep talking about how Democrats are a dead political party. Sending one of these guys up against JD Vance would confirm that, believe me. Let’s make it happen.

3. Oh, to be D.J. Daniel for a Day

This was heartwarming, wasn’t it?

🚨 THERE HE IS! Honorary Secret Service agent and renowned honorary law enforcement officer DJ Daniel with First Lady Melania Trump. pic.twitter.com/k9HiPmc2Uf

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) March 11, 2025

No, we wouldn’t wish upon anyone what D.J. Daniel, the brain cancer survivor whom President Trump made an honorary Secret Service agent two weeks ago, has had to go through. But let’s face it: a whole lot of people wouldn’t mind taking his place for that photograph.

Just saying. Anyway…

4. A Ceasefire, Maybe

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced earlier this week that there was agreement on the Ukrainian side for a 30-day cease-fire in the Russo–Ukrainian war.

And now the Russians are making similar noises.

BREAKING: Russia agrees to temporary ceasefire in Ukraine and is pushing for a long-term peace settlementpic.twitter.com/xTqKqQAYqq

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 13, 2025

To be fair, Russia’s terms are mostly ridiculous. They want to ban Ukraine from joining NATO, which isn’t ridiculous, and they want no NATO troops stationed in Ukraine as peacekeepers, which is something that could be agreed to. But then Putin is demanding that Ukraine be “denazified” (exactly how that would be done is unknown) and “demilitarized” (hell, no). And he’s also demanding that the four provinces of the Donbas, plus Crimea, be ceded to Russia. (RELATED: Running Out of Cards in Kursk)

That last part isn’t perhaps as impossible as it might sound. The peace deal could, or should, include a plebiscite in those areas. Generally, the population there is mostly Russian by ethnicity and language, and historically Russian to boot. If the people in those places voted to join Russia, that would seem to resolve the situation.

The guess here is that Trump and Rubio and Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, can get a better deal than Putin is offering. But at least we’re now talking terms for peace. It’s utterly amazing this war has gone on for three years when these are the issues to be resolved.

And yes, we know why there was no effort to resolve them. You’re welcome to litigate that in the comments if you must, and if you’re of the “tinfoil-hat” variety, you probably aren’t wrong. After all, the globalist WEF crowd who run Europe, and their Biden-handler pals in America, were perfectly fine to facilitate the sale of Russian oil and gas to Europe to fuel the Russian war chest all this time; given that fact, all of their arguments about how a cease-fire or peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine would be a capitulation to Putin are ridiculous. (RELATED: A Better Alternative To the Davos Elites)

5. And Finally, a Dog Update

It’s been a pretty long time since I wrote a particular column that generated a good deal of sympathy away from politics, and I’m happy to report that column turned out to have been utterly premature.

I’m speaking of Mr. Bingle, who is the canine court jester of Castle McKay.

In that column, he’d just been diagnosed with throat cancer, specifically a giant lump on his epiglottis that essentially makes it a rock in his throat. The vet figured he was a goner and essentially told me so. Looking at the pictures he showed me, I wasn’t in a position to disagree.

So I wrote something of a pre-eulogy of a very good boy. That was in late January 2023.

It’s coming up on 26 months later and Bingle is … fine.

He’s as energetic and vibrant as ever. He’s coming up on 10 and a half years old, which is a good deal of longevity for a boxer and especially one whose prospects were evaluated as poor by his veterinarian, but he’ll run and play and harass humans and other fauna with the best of them.

The thing in his throat does affect him some. He coughs a lot, and once in a while, that can get a bit scary. But so far those episodes always resolve themselves pretty quickly.

What isn’t going to resolve itself is the snoring. This dog snores louder than any living being on earth, and it’s the throat that causes it. If you’re a regular viewer or listener to The Spectacle, you can sometimes hear it in the background in those episodes when I don’t shut him out of my office. Bingle likes hearing me talk, and he’ll plop down in the doggie bed in the corner of the office and treat our podcasts as a lullaby. Before I know it, he’s sawing logs so loudly that the producers can’t suppress the sound in post-production.

I don’t sleep as well as I’d like to, thanks to the noise. But I call it a small price to pay for having the blessing of that good old dog around for all of this borrowed time.

And I’m very pleased to make an apology to our readers for jumping the gun on that eulogy. What I will say is that it’s been a very educational experience in recognizing that each day with that old dog is a blessing; I’m working on translating the lesson into the rest of my outlook on life, and I’ve got to tell you — it feels good.

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