Democrats just made a disturbing deal with McConnell to end the shutdown

This morning, Senate Democrats agreed to a deal to re-open the government in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) word that he would hold a vote on a clean Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) fix, putting the fate of 800,000 undocumented Americans into the hand of Washington’s most duplicitous man.

This just brought the three-day shutdown to a close as the Democrats cave in sadly predictable fashion, making the incredible decision to trust the word of Mitch McConnell, the man who literally stole a Supreme Court Justice seat out from under the Democratic Party.

But Chuck Schumer and the majority of Senate Democrats have decided to trust the man who made this exact same promise less than a month ago and reneged on it.

Critics point out that this deal gives Democrats nothing except taking the Children’s Health Insurance Program off the bargaining table, depriving the Republicans of their ability to take children’s healthcare hostage and allowing the narrative to be focused on the DREAMERs when McConnell inevitably betrays us and likely forces another shutdown in a month’s time.

But in the meantime, hundreds of people are still losing their DACA protections every day, leaving them vulnerable to deportation. Even if the DACA deal gets done, there’s no guarantee that the far-right lunatics in the House will be willing to pass it, or that Donald Trump will sign, or that they’ll sign it before half the DREAMERs have been thrown into an ICE concentration camp and put to slave labor before being sent back to nations they’ve never lived in before.

It is a very bad sign of things to come if the so-called “opposition” is willing to give up so quickly on what was supposed to be a defining issue.

Here’s how your Senators voted:

Colin Taylor

Managing Editor

Colin Taylor is the managing editor of the Washington Press. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice, equality, and universal health care in America.