US Senate moves to end ending longest government shutdown in American history • FRANCE 24 English

US Senate moves to end ending longest government shutdown in American history • FRANCE 24 English

Story of the day. The US Senate has passed a deal aimed at ending the government shutdown after a weekend of tense negotiations. A handful of Democrats joined Republicans to move the agreement forward. It is the first major step towards restoring government funding, which has been frozen since early October. The plan, however, still needs approval from the House of Representatives before federal employees can return to work and services resume. After 40 days of gridlock, it is still the clearest sign yet that an end to the shutdown could finally be in sight. Joining me now is our international affairs commentator, Douglas Herbert. Uh Douglas, how has this shutdown been different? It’s been more bitter. It’s been more rancerous. And notably, you’ve had an American president, Donald Trump, essentially using this shutdown, taking it beyond what shutdowns have been about in the past, ideological, you know, ch differences and all of that and squables between two parties. Uh he’s taken this to another level. He’s used it essentially as a blunt cudgel against those he perceives as his political opponents and in more broadly democratic parties and agencies in the government that he sees as Democrats. So he talked on social media about targeting quote democratic agencies with uh all sorts of cuts, possibly layoffs, all of that. He has essentially used this in the eyes of his critics, Donald Trump that is, to inflict pain on Americans. It’s that simple. It’s that blunt. And how has he done it? by uh you know trying to suspend and suspending essentially food benefits to to Americans um by you know causing growing chaos at airports by ordering them shut down citing the lack of uh airport controllers and so on and so forth generally making life much more difficult if not almost impossible for a lot of federal employees who are either furled that is forced to work without pay which is common during shutdowns but in Trump’s case also laying off thousands of uh federal workers this has been a personal this has been a shutdown which following a pattern in the Donald Trump presidency, his opponents will say, has been about retribution. Not simply trying to get to a budget and settle differences over bud over over a congressional budget, but actually taking aim at your opponents using a 40-day shutdown, the longest in history to do that. But let’s not forget most Democrats did not vote for this, did they? Absolutely not. only eight. A small but crucial group of Democrats broke ranks with their party, teamed up with Republicans in the Senate to vote in favor of this deal. A deal which, let’s remember, if you want to say Democrats blinked first, the reason some people are leading with headlines with that is because they gave away what had been their central their most crucial argument in standing by this shutdown, refusing to reopen the government or to negotiate. It is that they wanted to protect Americans healthc care subsidies. that is tax credits that Americans get that were set to expire at the end of this year. That is not in this deal right now. The Democrats that broke away accepted a deal that did not require it. All they got was this sort of um promise from the Senate to hold a vote in December on those tax credits to see if they could extend them. So right now there’s going to be a lot of debate over whether it was capitulation or whether it was pragmatism, but I’ll tell you it for now it’s looking like yes, the Democrats blink first and they’re going to get a lot of blowback from within their party itself, especially from the more progressive wing of the Democratic party. Douglas Herbert, thank

Douglas Herbert gives us his take.
#US #Shutdown #Senate

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