OPINION:
As Washington convulses into yet another budget drama, Democrats are busily assembling their “Washington Monument Game.” That’s when they threaten to shut down the government and deny access to popular attractions if the Republicans won’t go along with a budget bill that funds their Free Stuff Army.
The biggest piece they have in the game is the media, which reflexively cast Republicans as evil schemers plotting to kick grandma over a cliff and onto a drifting iceberg.
If this were a football game, the referees would be wearing donkey masks and issuing absurd penalties on the elephants.
However, this scenario didn’t work so well in March. In the face of cutbacks engineered by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, reluctantly voted for the Republicans’ seven-month funding bill.
It’s difficult to play hardball when the Republicans control federal agencies and won’t block off the Washington Monument and Bryce Canyon or delay Social Security checks.
It’s difficult to play hardball when the Republicans control federal agencies and won’t block off the Washington Monument and Bryce Canyon or delay Social Security checks.
In any case, Democrats are again threatening to filibuster a stopgap funding bill. Mr. Schumer says Republicans will be blamed for the fallout (see any media coverage of government shutdowns).
Democrats also want to change the news narrative. They and their media have been trying to convince Americans that the political violence epitomized by the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has no pattern. Both sides do it, they insist, as the media bury the stark, contradictory evidence.
Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel floated the lie that the leftist, gay suspect in Mr. Kirk’s killing — whose partner is a male transitioning to female — was part of the MAGA movement. Amazingly, ABC suspended Mr. Kimmel’s show, at least for now. The Washington Post front page headline on Friday proclaimed that “Kimmel’s suspension raises fears of new censorship era.” A gaggle of Post writers denounced the “right-wing campaign to shut down perceived detractors” of Mr. Kirk. Perceived?
As far as the budget bill, Mr. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, his fellow New Yorker, are demanding that the Republicans bend to their policy demands. The measure must pass by Sept. 30, or the federal government allegedly won’t be able to pay its bills and will flop around like a stranded whale on a beach.
The Democratic leaders’ newfound resolve might have something to do with developments in New York. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the fast-rising Bolshevik ingenue, has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Mr. Schumer, who faces reelection in 2028. Also, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, whom Politico calls a “moderate,” has endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor. He is an anti-Israel, Islamic socialist who has advocated the communist goal of “seizing the means of production.”
New York City is still America’s financial capital, but left-wing politicians are driving out its most lucrative taxpayers, who provide 40% of the city’s budget.
“New York’s share of the nation’s millionaires plummeted 31 percent between 2010 and 2022,” according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission. The exodus to places such as Florida and Texas cost the state and city more than $13 billion in revenue in 2022. Mr. Mamdani has proposed a “millionaire’s tax” that would bring the total city, state and federal tax bill for millionaires to nearly 54%, said economist Peter C. Earle, writing in The Epoch Times.
“That is not just taxation; it is confiscation,” Mr. Earle said.
Some Republican strategists are giddy over the possibility of campaigning against a Democratic Party that has Mr. Mamdani as its poster boy. They will force Democrats from Bangor to Scottsdale to go on record about him.
So far, Messrs. Schumer and Jeffries have not endorsed Mr. Mamdani. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, has called them “spineless.” Without an ounce of irony, Mr. Van Hollen introduced the “No Political Enemies Act,” saying, “You can’t use government power to punish people you disagree with.”
He did so after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr leaned on Disney/ABC over Mr. Kimmel’s remarks. Bully for Mr. Van Hollen. If brazen lies are not protected speech, most of the networks would be out of business.
The problem is the selective outrage. Mr. Van Hollen wasn’t remotely concerned when President Obama weaponized the IRS and intelligence agencies against conservatives and invented the treasonous Russian collusion hoax against President Trump. Or when Democrats strong-armed social media to censor conservatives while leftist mobs attacked conservative speakers on campuses.
On the day of Mr. Kirk’s assassination, Mr. Trump said: “For years, those on the Radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.” On cue, the media accused him of fomenting division.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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