Two leading progressive Democrats are urging their party to block the government funding bill due Dec. 11 unless it cuts off money for the war with Iran, a fight that could shut down the government weeks before the new Democratic majorities are even sworn in.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Rep. Ro Khanna of California are calling on Democrats to withhold votes for any spending bill that does not restrict funding for the conflict, The Washington Sun reported Friday.
“I’m not planning to vote for anything that provides any funding to fuel the war in Iran,” Van Hollen told the paper. “If the president wants to tell the country that he’s prepared to shut down the United States government in order to conduct an illegal and senseless war in Iran, that will be his choice.”
A Vietnam-era playbook
Van Hollen said he and colleagues are discussing language modeled on a 1973 measure that barred spending on the Vietnam War, including money Congress had already approved. “The idea would be to say no funds may be expended to conduct the war in Iran,” he said.
Khanna said on “The Lever” podcast that Democrats should risk a shutdown. “Of course, we should,” he said. “Our first aim should be to try to stop this war, and we should use every tool at our disposal to do that.”
Republicans still hold 53 Senate seats until January, so they need at least seven Democratic votes to break a filibuster on a funding bill. More than two dozen left-leaning groups, including Demand Progress and the National Iranian American Council, signed a letter demanding that any stopgap bill prohibit funding for what they call “unauthorized hostilities against Iran.”
Democratic leaders have not signed on. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the party’s “top priority” is a spending deal that meets Americans’ needs. One Democratic aide told the Sun that a long standoff could swallow the opening weeks of the new majority. Democrats lost two shutdown fights over the past year, the paper noted.
Raskin’s list
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, in line to chair the House Judiciary Committee, told The Baltimore Banner on Election Day that impeachment remains on the table. “We’re not afraid to impeach Donald Trump. We’ve done it twice,” he said. “It cannot be a fetish, but it also can’t be a taboo either.”
Raskin said his priorities would include requiring background checks on private gun sales, not only sales by licensed dealers. Republicans have long argued such rules burden hobbyists and people selling guns to friends or from personal collections.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts added her own demands on X. “Democrats, don’t tell me about a majority, show me a majority,” she wrote, calling for Medicare for All and repeal of the Hyde Amendment.
The bottom line
I take Democrats at their word, and their word this week is that the first use of their new power may be a government shutdown during a shooting war. Van Hollen calls the war illegal while our sailors escort tankers through waters Iran is mining. Cutting off funds in the middle of that fight would put American troops and ships at risk and hand Tehran the victory it could not win at sea.
Raskin’s agenda tells you the rest. Impeachment is back on the table before he holds the gavel, and private gun sales between neighbors are a top priority.
Republicans should pass a clean funding bill and make every member who wants a shutdown explain that choice to the troops and their families.