Congressional Democrats seem to have grown a spine

A man once appeared on “Fox and Friends,” the Fox News morning show,  to offer his opinion about an impending government shutdown over one of America’s perennial budget battles. He had a very clear idea of the problem and how it should be solved. “Problems start from the top and they have to get solved from the top,” he told the hosts. “The president is the leader, and he’s got to get everybody in a room and he’s got to lead…I really think the pressure is on the president. “

The man was Donald Trump, the year was 2013 and he was speaking about President Barack Obama. 

That was then. After agreeing to meet with Democratic leaders this week to try to head off a looming shutdown, Trump decided it wasn’t worth his time. In a long Truth Social diatribe, he claimed that unless Democrats dropped a dozen demands they hadn’t actually made — “have dead people on the Medicaid roles [sic]” and “transgender operations for everybody” — he would not meet with them. 

According to POLITICO, Trump was actually asked by GOP congressional leadership not to meet with the Democratic leadership as he’d planned. This was probably a smart move on their part; the last thing they would have wanted is to let Trump be alone in a room with anyone. Scattered and undisciplined, it’s never clear which way he will go. 

On Friday, it was reported that Trump will meet with leaders of both parties on Monday afternoon. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York, issued a statement about the meeting. “We are resolute in our determination to avoid a government shutdown and address the Republican healthcare crisis,” they said. “Time is running out.”

The president has always believed that government shutdowns are beneficial to him. Republican elected officials, though, know better. They seem badly divided on strategy in the face of Democrats who, in a strange turn of events, appear to be united and unwilling to bend. The GOP doesn’t have much practice in dealing with such an unusual phenomenon. 

One side, led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, favors a clear, straightforward message: Democrats are refusing to sign onto a clean continuing resolution to fund the government for another seven weeks. In other words, they are being unreasonably obstructionist. But the other side, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, prefers screaming bloody murder that Democrats are angling to reverse laws to…