Senate Democrats are cautiously optimistic about a potential agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But it’s far from a done deal.

As negotiations ramp up on Capitol Hill to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Senate Democrats seem to be clinging to a particular word: reforms.

It was a term party leaders used in the context of Immigration and Customs Enforcement nearly two dozen times during a March 24 news conference.

The refrain threw cold water on a new GOP compromise to fund the critical agency — minus ICE’s enforcement and removal operations — and end a crisis that has upended air travel across the country.

“Democrats are continuing to push for modest reforms,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters. “The current Republican offer in front of us does not do that.”

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    17 hours ago

    I got no problem with that. I wanted to keep it locked down last Fall.

    I don’t like General Strikes. You think Trump is going to capitulate because we self-inflicted unemployment on ourselves? He’ll just think that’s hilarious.

    No, instead of cutting off OUR money, let’s cut off THEIR money. That hurts THEM. You want money? Dance, Monkey, Dance.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      14 hours ago

      A general strike does cut off the owner class’s money. How do you think they get money? They sure as hell aren’t getting their hands dirty and making anything. Their money comes from our labor. Sure, it also hurts workers (which is what strike funds are for), but it’s one of the few tools we have to hurt the owners.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        6 hours ago

        European nations do general Strikes because they don’t have an alternative. America has the unique option of shutting off the GOVERNMENT’S money instead of our own. So why don’t we do what works best for US, instead of following the tired old European model, that simply won’t be effective in America?

        We can try to hurt the Sociopathic Oligarchs with strikes, but they’ll just spend their endless fortunes fighting back. But if we hurt the politicians badly, and convincingly threaten them with more in the future, we can make them more afraid of US, than their desire for more money from the Sociopathic Oligarchs.

        I just don’t see how self-inflicted wounds are going to convince MAGA psychopaths to behave. They. Don’t. Care. About. Us. We can hurt ourselves all day long, and they’ll just watch and laugh.

        What politicians care about is themselves and their money, so hurt them in THEIR pocketbooks, not ours. That will wake them up real fast. We’re seeing it right now in this partial shutdown. They are flailing all over the place, but NOTHING is working for them, and everybody knows they are running out of all their options.

        The SAVE Act will NOT be passed, and DHS will NOT be funded unless they take those masks off. This is due to the Dems hanging tough and not giving up this time, unlike that shameful, humiliating surrender last Fall. THAT government shutdown should still be going on.

        For me, that was the last straw for the MAGA comedy act of Schmuck & Schumer. Those two loser need to get the hook and be dragged offstage.

        To paraphrase General Patton: We won’t win by hurting ourselves, we will win by hurting THEM. So let’s hurt them real bad, in every way possible. That will make them listen.