1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

As president Trump continues to pressure the Republican Congress to rubber-stamp his wish to end the filibuster, he tried to assuage concerns that if they nuke the filibuster, Democrats in power in the future would use a simple majority to pass whatever legislation they wish. Trump said there was no need to worry about future Democratic control because by getting rid of the filibuster, Republicans could pass legislation that would guarantee they would “never lose the midterms and we will never lose a general election” again. Voter integrity in action. But yesterday on the floor of the Senate Chuck Schumer said the Democrats would vote to end the government shutdown in exchange for a one-year extension of the expiring premium tax credits. And the establishment of a bipartisan committee to figure out how to revise the tax credits so they could continue past next year’s open enrollment period. This would have answered the short-term problems of the government shutdown and skyrocketing premiums and left the question of extending the premium tax credits to voters next year. Let the 3/4 of Americans who want these extensions decide. Sounds like democracy in action. But Republicans rejected the offer outright. Democrats are now in the position of having offered a reasonable—even a popular—deal that Republicans refused because Trump insists on no negotiation, period. What a dealmaker he is. Y’all officially own the shutdown. You rejected reopening the government and killed a measure that is overwhelmingly popular across the poltical spectrum. Instead Trump seems to be trying to keep pressure on the Republicans to kill the filibuster or the Democrats to cave by tightening the screws on the American people. POTUS went to SCOTUS for permission to stop the court-ordered distribution of food benefits for 42M Americans. Which they gave. In the meantime, Speaker Johnson announced he is keeping the House out of session again next week, for the eighth consecutive week,. Senators say they will stay in Washington and work to end the shutdown (BS meter off the charts). And Trump is following Johnson’s lead and getting out of town, heading to Florida for the weekend. Because life is good when you don’t have to know where your food comes from and you never have to worry about how you will get to your mansion by the sea. Someone else always makes it so. And pays for it too. Your political decision making seems to have self-destructed.