Will Democrats in Congress Take Their One Chance To Change Voters’ Perception of Them?

With House and Senate Republicans working their way through their respective legislative packages and President Trump waiting by for some kind of a solution, Democrats have little to do. In the coming days, the Democratic Party will have its first — and only — opportunity in 2025 to twist arms and win concessions from the GOP. The question is whether they will take it and give their voters something in which to revel?Welcome to Washington, where the latest drama in Congress is actually quite serious — government funding and the debt limit. If the day-to-day committee hearings and messaging bills brought to the floor are driving Americans’ low opinion of Congress now, then failing to keep the government open and — even worse — breaching the debt limit could lead to open revolt. Failing to raise the debt limit, according to Moodys’ Analytics’ most recent estimate, would immediately put the United States on track for a 2008-style economic collapse. Despite the doomsday date — March 14 — being fewer than two weeks off, it should be Christmas for Democratic Party leaders. For Republicans will be unable to keep the government open or raise the debt limit without Democrats. In the Senate, the GOP needs at least seven votes from the other side to pass the measures, and in the House it’s clear now that Speaker Johnson will need help to keep the lights on.On Sunday, one House Republican, Congressman Tony Gonzales — who is no right-wing obstructionist — said he would not vote for a continuing resolution, which is legislation that would simply keep the government open with funding kept at current levels. “Congress needs to do its job and pass a conservative budget. CR’s are code for Continued Rubberstamp of fraud, waste, and abuse,” Mr. Gonzales says. The dysfunction within the Republican Party could quickly devolve into backbiting and recrimination, leaving the House Democrats’ leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, and Senator Schumer to be saviors of Mr. Johnson and Senator Thune. Democrats are already crying out for it — not aiding Republicans in any way, to be sure, but for using what little leverage they have in President Trump’s America to win concessions from the House and Senate majorities. According to a poll taken just before Mr. Trump was sworn to the parchment, the Democratic Party has never been less popular, and even the party’s own members don’t believe they’re doing well.Just 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party — the lowest number since the polling firm SSRS began asking the question nearly 20 years ago. Even among registered Democrats, only 78 percent have a favorable opinion. Among their alleged base voters, the numbers are even worse. Just 32 percent of women, 25 percent of minorities, 29 percent under the age of 35, and 33 percent who earn less than $50,000 annually say they have a positive view of the party. For congressional Democrats, the numbers are even worse. According to a Quinnipiac University poll released this past week, 40 percent of Democrats approve of how their party’s federal legislators are doing their jobs, compared to 49 percent who disapprove. Compare that to congressional Republicans, who garner a 79 percent approval rating and a 10 percent disapproval rating from their voters. Among independents, 40 percent like how the GOP is running things, while just 19 percent of independents enjoy the Democrats’ actions in the minority. Messrs. Jeffries and Schumer could use the upcoming funding and debt limit fight to galvanize their voters, proving that they can fight for something. When Speaker McCarthy ran the House, he got President Biden to agree to meaningful spending cuts and an automatic funding cut should the federal government fail to reach an agreement by a set budget deadline. The white whale for Democratic voters is likely Elon Musk himself — a man who now enjoys a 2 percent approval rating among Democrats and a 39 percent approval rating among independents. Just this past week, Congressmen Rich McCormick and Keith Self, Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger, and Senator Marshall of Kansas — four federal lawmakers in safe red seats — were harangued by voters back home over Mr. Musk’s role in the federal government, slashing and burning his way through the executive branch.

Will Democrats in Congress Take Their One Chance To Change Voters’ Perception of Them?

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