Here’s what Mass. Democrats say they’re doing to counter Trump’s ‘all-out assault’
Massachusetts Democrats are working with other party members in Congress to combat the stream of executive orders from President Donald Trump.
“I think he has launched an all-out assault, not only against the middle class and against the most vulnerable in our country, but he has launched an all-out assault against our democracy,” Rep. Jim McGovern, who represents Massachusetts’s 2nd Congressional District, told Boston.com.
Though Democrats are in the minority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, local congresspeople said they have a few tools to push back on the actions from the White House.
Minority Whip Katherine Clark, who represents Massachusetts’s 5th District, told WBUR that the party is partnering with its attorney generals, labor unions, and other groups to bring lawsuits against the president and his administration.
These include Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who joined attorneys general from 13 other states to sue President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
According to a lawsuit tracker aggregated by The New York Times, around 92 lawsuits have been filed against Trump regarding immigration, budget and grant freezes, federal worker firings, and DOGE.
Clark said legislation and mobilization will also be part of the strategy.
“Just last week, more than 3,000 constituents contacted my office this weekend at a telephone town hall,” Whip told WBUR. “I had tens of thousands of people join, and this is going on across the country.”
In an interview with Boston.com Tuesday, McGovern said a budget brought by Republicans would be debated on the floor that day and there needed to be three GOP members to side with the minority party to defeat it. The budget wound up passing in the House Tuesday with a razor-thin 217-215 vote.
“[Trump’s actions] are unlawful and they are unconstitutional,” McGovern said. “The question is whether or not Congress has the spine to do its job in confronting his unlawful behavior.”
The budget called for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts while raising the debt ceiling to $4 trillion. It amped up spending in homeland security, which oversees immigration enforcement, by up to $90 billion.
The spending cuts are feared to be taken from programs like SNAP and Medicaid. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who serves Massachusetts’s 4th District, said cuts from Medicaid will greatly affect care for seniors and children, and that Republican representatives will hear from their voters about it.
“They are touching a hot stove in slow motion,” Auchincloss said of the GOP reps. “They will need to explain to their constituents how they are planning to fund at-home care for seniors and primary care visits for children.”
The second source of leverage the party has is the upcoming government funding deadline, where funds will expire on March 14. Auchincloss said Republicans need Democratic votes for the spending bill, and that that has been the case for years.
“This government funding deadline is the most important leverage that Democrats in Washington have right now, and we should use it to secure enforceable provisions to box in Trump’s chaos and corruption,” Auchincloss said.
Auchincloss said party members are in “constant communication,” from the governor to local officials. He said members are always huddling, evaluating, and responding to actions from the White House.
“Democrats can’t let Trump play fetch with our attention span,” Auchincloss said. “We need to focus on the big and imminent threats to the rule of law, and we need to marshal our power for this upcoming appropriations negotiation.”
By: Emilia Wisniewski
Source: Boston.com