Decision time in the Senate

The political blogosphere has been ablaze over the question of what Senate Democrats should do about the (clearly very bad) continuing resolution passed by House Republicans a few days ago.  Their options are to provide the votes needed (along with most Senate Republicans) to pass it, or to filibuster it, which would probably mean a government shutdown.  It's not yet clear what will happen, but it would take only eight Democrats to pass the bill, and that's more likely to happen now that Schumer has decided to support it.

Unlike many who are energized about this, I don't claim to know for certain what is the best course of action here.  I doubt anyone knows for sure.  However, I found this post clarifying.  Elon Musk wants a shutdown.  The Republican vandals who support his wrecking of the federal government want a shutdown.  It would provide cover to do a lot more damage.

Whatever the circumstances, government shutdowns do a lot of real harm to real people.  Hundreds of thousands of federal workers get furloughed without pay, and hundreds of thousands more have to work without pay.  This would be damaging even in a healthy economy -- in our current economy already badly crippled by Trump's idiotic trade wars and Musk's mass firings, the ripple effects of so many additional people suddenly losing their income might well be catastrophic.

In all the online exhortations urging Senate Democrats to block the continuing resolution, I've seen little or no sign of any interest in all the people who would be hurt by a shutdown.  One of those people might well be me.  My Social Security alone is not enough to live on, so I need periodic temp work to survive.  So far this year I've had only a couple days worth of work, probably because companies are reluctant to hire in the midst of all the economic chaos and uncertainty that Trump is creating.  If I don't find something real within the next month or so, I'll quickly become unable to even pay the rent.  I'm at enough risk already without the even further damage that a government shutdown would do to the overall economy.  Many, perhaps millions, are in a similar position.  But to those whose only concern is "oppose the Republicans!" no matter what the real-world impact, apparently I and people like me are just acceptable collateral damage.

One could engage in all kinds of logic-pretzeling about whose fault it would be, but the fact is that the Senate Democrats, right now, have the power to prevent a shutdown, and it's they who must decide whether or not to do so.  We elect legislators to protect people from harm, not to allow preventable harm and hope the other party gets blamed for it.

Under the status quo, there has in fact been effective resistance to the Republicans.  Court rulings have gone against several of Musk's worst actions.  Trump has repeatedly backed down on bad decisions when faced with enough pushback or with sudden stock-market plunges.  Some of the damage, at least, is being contained.  The last thing we need now is the wrecking ball of a shutdown.