Democrats seeking to halt, or at least slow down the Trump/Musk administration’s rampage against the federal government, may have one of their few remaining options available this week by refusing to support GOP efforts to keep the government open after March 14 by passing a non-bipartisan funding extension.
As reported this weekend by the Associated Press, ‘House Republicans unveil bill to avoid shutdown and their daring Democrats to oppose it,” the GOP s seeking to blame the Democrats for a shutdown that would stop payments to some members of the military, according to story in Military Times, halt funding for a variety of federal programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and other family support programs as reported in the Reuter’s story “Explainer: Why would the US government shut down?”
The Continuing Resolution (CR) would fund the government through at the end of September, with Democrats saying it would provide the administration with a blank check to fund its massive deportation effort, threaten funding to “healthcare, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits” as reported in an ABC New story.
A loss of a couple of GOP votes in the House, a failure of getting Democratic help in the Senate to pass the CR by a 60 vote margin, would derail passage of the CR as reported in an NPR story “GOP unveils stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown. They may not have the votes.”
While most Democrats have come out against the CR bill, with NPR publishing a lengthy Democratic rebuttal to the CR, some Dems in contested districts appear to be waffling about whether or not they will support the bill.
For those against the administration’s effort to gut the U.S. government, this might be the best time to make their voices known by contacting their members of Congress and demand a government shutdown unless Congress starts working on a series of bipartisan bills that tackle such thorny issues as reining in federal spending versus protection and continuing funding of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
P.S. — The stoppage of the federal government isn’t the only shutdown planned for this week. The movement, Shutdown 315, is calling for Americans to shutdown the retail sector on March 15 for a variety of reasons including — lack of affordable housing, rising consumer prices (made worse with Trump’s tariff wars against Canada/China/Mexico) anti Diversity/Equity/Inclusion efforts and rising health care/insurance costs, as outlined in the Newsweek story “What Is #Shutdown315? Nationwide Plan to Shut Down USA for 1 Day.” Shutdown 315 urges American consumers to stop buying from large corporations, removing certain retailer social media apps, avoid travel and buying gas and, best of all, stay home on March 15.
Other groups have also launched recent boycotts against retailers including a 40-day boycott of Target for its scaling back of it DEI efforts, as reported in the Associated Press story “A 40-day Target boycott began this week. What to know about the protest and its potential impact.”
While some economists say economic boycotts have had limited effects, others point to the April 2023 conservative boycott of Bud Light over its collaboration with a transgendered influencer in a social media advertisement. According to a Harvard Business Review story, “Lessons from the Bud Light Boycott, One Year Later,” Bud Light sales dropped by nearly 30 percent over the prior year, and have yet to bounce back, as reported in a February 2025 story by the New York Post — “Bud Light hasn’t recovered from Mulvaney controversy, ex-Anheuser-Busch exec says.”
