Why don’t Republicans just follow Donald Trump’s advice, use the “nuclear option” putting the kibosh on the stupid U.S. Senate filibuster, and pass their version of the government funding bill that would reopen government?
House Speaker Mike Johnson, skipping work again on Monday, gave away the game in his daily press conference.
Mike Johnson: “If they had no filibuster impediment, they would pack the Supreme Court. You’d go from 9 to 13 to 15 to 17 or however many liberals they could pack on the Court. You would see DC and Puerto Rico made into states, which would give 4 additional Democrat senators and… pic.twitter.com/FVKio6CBw1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 3, 2025
“What would the Democrats do, if they had no filibuster impediment, no speed bump at all? They’ve already told us. They would pack the Supreme Court, they’d go from nine to 13 of 15 or 17 or however many liberals they could pack on the court. You would make DC and Puerto Rico made into states, which would give four additional Democrat senators there in the count and make us a permanent minority. I guess that would be their calculation. You’d see massive restriction of the Second Amendment, Second Amendment rights. You’d see them federalize elections, so they could take over and manipulate things in the red states. There’s a lot of abuses that could come.”
There’s a lot to unpack there, but keeping the main thing the main thing, Johnson is conceding here that Republicans have the option of reopening government with a simple-majority vote in the U.S. Senate, but don’t want to.
Left unsaid: if Republicans want to preserve the filibuster, and also want to reopen the federal government, it’s their side that will need to negotiate with Democrats, which they have not done in any way, shape or form over the past 34 days.
The Democrats’ asking price is simple: roll back the massive cuts to healthcare enshrined in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill that MAGAs in Congress ramrodded through in the summer.
Republicans have been trying to use the shutdown to force Democrats to sign on to the trillions being taken out of healthcare to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and now they’re using the 40 million people who rely on food stamps to eat as leverage.
It’s not a good look, literally starving people to help pay for tax cuts for the 1 percent, while tearing down part of the White House to begin work on a $300 million renovation that will give Trump a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that he can slap his name on, and also hyping renovations to Trump’s new gold and marble shitter.
To the unpacking of Johnson’s whining on “what would the Democrats do”:
- Republicans packed the Supreme Court by stealing nominations from Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
- DC and Puerto Rico statehood, long overdue. If Republicans don’t want to be a permanent minority, how about moderating your policies?
- Republicans rewrote the Second Amendment. How about we go back to the original intent, which was to make sure that we had the ability to defend ourselves against a foreign invasion back when we didn’t have a standing army, which we have now?
- Federalizing elections and manipulating things in red states? Seriously? Trump seems to think he can federalize elections with his sharpie. The same Constitution that prevents him from being able to do so would serve as a limit on Democrats.
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Chris Graham
