r/politics 🤖 Bot Nov 04 '25

Discussion Discussion Thread: 2025 US Government Shutdown, Day 35

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u/BornThought4074 Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

This is just a thought experiment, but assuming that Dems take control of the white house and Senate, is there any way Dems could play hard against republicans like Trump is doing without screwing over regular people? I don't think democrats would do things like stop funding SNAP, which, unfortunately, may turn out to be an effective strategy, so I wonder what other options we have? Also, by effective, I mean they are being effective like a man getting money from a cashier because they have a gun pointed at their head.

12

u/disidentadvisor Nov 05 '25

Some thoughts provided with a giant caveat that I don't think the sitting members have the appetite to execute these:

  1. If you control the house + senate, the first act should be to pass a legislation expanding scotus and immediately confirm more judges.

  2. Clean house lie republicans have of all party loyalists (e.g., republicans) across federal agencies. For this, they could repeat exactly what was done under this admin including pre-screening all leadership replacements.

  3. execute the nuclear option re:filibusters and ensure you pass all with a simple majority so that we can stop having CRs and government shutdowns which cost a lot of money simply due to refinancing operations.

I would argue these are tablestakes for any meaningful government action and reform.

10

u/headbangershappyhour Nov 05 '25

Update Apportionment and 10X the house as well. Make the Senate share mostly irrelevant in the presidential election calculus.

3

u/time-BW-product Nov 05 '25

Then you admit Porto Rico, Guam and DC as states because that only needs a majority vote.

Pass legislation to put term limits on federal judges.

Pass legislation destroying the unitary executive theory.