VICTOR JOECKS: Democrats’ deeply dishonest shutdown dance

Nevada’s House Democrats were so upset about the government being shut down that they voted against reopening it. No, that doesn’t make sense.

The longest federal shutdown is over. On Wednesday, the House voted on a Senate-approved bill to fund the government. The Senate finally passed a spending bill after several Democrats joined almost every Republican to approve it. President Donald Trump signed the legislation on Wednesday evening. It will take a bit of time for everything to return to normal.

“I’ve opposed this shutdown from the start and have been in Washington every week to help bring about its end,” Rep. Steven Horsford said in a statement.

That seems clear. Surely he voted to reopen the government. Nope.

“But I also oppose any proposal that fails my constituents after they’ve endured 43 days of this Republican failure to govern,” he continued.

Think about this contention that the shutdown is the GOP’s fault. Republicans do control the House and Senate, but they don’t have the 60 votes needed in the Senate to overcome a filibuster. Republicans voted more than a dozen times to re-open the government. Those efforts didn’t reach 60 votes, however, because almost every Democrat voted no. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was one of the exceptions. The shutdown ended only after several Democrats, including Sen. Jacky Rosen, flipped their votes.

This is like hiding someone’s car keys and then blaming them for not driving to the grocery store to get food.

That didn’t keep Rep. Susie Lee from repeating this same canard. Republicans “own the shutdown,” she said. She accused them of holding “Americans hostage.”

Wow. Sounds terrible. Surely she jumped at the opportunity to end the shutdown, right? Nope, she also voted against re-opening the government.

In mid-October, Rep. Dina Titus said Republicans have “shut down the government.” She then voted against funding the government. Further, she said Cortez Masto, Rosen and the other Senate Democrats who approved the bill reopening the government “capitulated.”

That claim makes sense only if you understand the backstory. To reopen the government, Democrats wanted Republicans to prop up Obamacare by extending “temporary” premium subsidies that went to even well-off Americans. The left won’t admit that Obamacare has destroyed the private insurance marketplace, but this was a de facto acknowledgment that it has. In essence, Democrats held the government — and SNAP recipients and air travelers — captive. They then blamed Republicans for not giving in to their demands.

This is like a bank robber who takes a hostage and then attacks law enforcement for creating the terrible situation. “If only the police had let me escape with the money I stole from the bank, I wouldn’t be holding this hostage,” he would say.

Democrats want you to blame Republicans for the shutdown Senate Democrats caused by refusing to pass the continuing resolution. And then Horsford, Lee and Titus voted against the bill that reopened the government.

Even for politicians, the level of duplicity here is off the charts.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.