Remember the movie (or the novel) “Sophie’s Choice”? Meryl Streep won an Oscar for playing a woman whom the Nazis posed with a dilemma: choose one of her two children to send to the gas chamber, or else the Nazis would execute both of them. The choice haunted her after the war ended.
It’s a heartrending thought, and, sure, it’s a bit extreme for a metaphor, but in the fight over this continuing resolution, the Democrats are faced with what I’ll call Schumer’s Choice. The fate of the government is in the hands of Democrat senators now, and neither choice is good for them.
The continuing resolution gives the Democrats fits because it funds the government with the Trump administration in charge of it — including Elon Musk’s DOGE and Tom Homan’s ICE. That prospect alone is enough to give Democrats nightmares.
The other prospect is to shut the government down. We can be 100% certain that the Democrats will have to own that decision, and Trump and his communications team will be sure to remind the American public at every turn. But there’s another wrinkle to the looming shutdown: who takes charge of the government in that scenario.
If the government shuts down over a budget fight, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) takes charge. And who’s in charge of the OMB? None other than Russell Vought.
Related: Shameful: Wheaton College Gives in to Leftists, Apologizes for Congratulating Alum Russ Vought
Last month, my PJ Media colleague Rick Moran reported that the Democrats said Vought was the most dangerous nominee for a position in the Trump administration. Rick wrote:
Democrats believe that the mild-mannered, self-described devout Christian nominee for budget director, Russell Vought, is “the most dangerous” Trump nominee.
“Russell Vought was born to make corruption safe again,” said freshman Sen. Andy Kim, Democrat from New Jersey.
Whenever a Democrat from New Jersey talks about “corruption,” grab your wallet and lock up your wife and daughters.
Sen. Kim is not sticking to the script. The real reason that Democrats say they oppose Vought is because of his connection to the Death Star plans — er, Project 2025. Vought worked for the Heritage Foundation when Project 2025 was being written.
He is also a “Christian nationalist.” This means that Vought wants to infuse Christian values into the government and put a crucifix in every federal office. Well, maybe not that last part, but you get the idea.
Being a Christian evidently means he wants to starve women, children, and old people.
Vought is the same man who is so dangerous that his Christian college alma mater apologized for congratulating him on his new gig at the OMB. What makes him particularly unattractive to Democrats is that he was one of the authors of the Project 2025 manifesto, which isn’t a Trump administration project, but it has become the Democrats’ only epithet when all else fails and they’re reduced to stuttering and sputtering.
“As a principal author of Project 2025, Vought — Trump’s pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget in his first and second terms — wrote a chapter outlining plans to overhaul the executive branch and refocus federal agencies to serve the president’s agenda, NBC News reported on Wednesday. “In his chapter, Vought referred to OMB as ‘the president’s air-traffic control system,’ with its director tasked with serving as ‘the keeper of “commander’s intent.”’”
“Vought wrote in the section that the next administration would require ‘boldness to bend or break bureaucracy to the presidential will’ and ‘self-denial’ to send power from Washington back to the hands of American families,” the report continued.
Democrats no doubt have their fainting couches at the ready.
Of course, the other side of Schumer’s Choice, funding the government and allowing DOGE and deportations, is equally anathematic to the Democrats. These people have painted themselves into a heck of a corner.
Erick Erickson wrote on Thursday morning:
Democrats fell into the trap perfectly.
If they agreed to fund the government, they’d fund deportations and DOGE. By refusing to fund the government, they are putting Russ Vought in charge of a shutdown government.
Magic Mike Johnson created a brilliant trap — fund Elon Musk or unleash Russ Vought. Either way the Democrats lose. If they fund Musk and DOGE, they will see a progressive uprising against them. If they shutdown the government, they can be seen as fighters while Russ Vought cripples their governmental constituencies.
Right now, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats seem inclined to unleash Russ Vought on the government — a fully empowered Director of the Office of Personnel and Management who will leave open the monuments the tourists see and shutter all the parts of government Democrats love.
No matter what the Democrats do, they’re doing it while holding the rope that Trump will hang them with. Either way, the Trump administration wins — not only in terms of policy but also in the realm of public relations.
Get that popcorn ready. This ought to be fun to watch.
Ain’t it fun to watch the Democrats sabotage themselves at every turn? I know I’m enjoying it, and our PJ Media VIPs are in on all the fun, too.
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