Goldberg: Can Hakeem Jeffries break through?

Last week I went down to Washington to speak to Hakeem Jeffries the House minority leader after he gave a speech marking Donald Trump s calamitous first days in office At a time when several Democrats feel leaderless Jeffries usually a relentlessly on-message inside operator had been stepping further into the constituents eye Not long before we spoke he d appeared on a live taping of the Raging Moderates podcast in New York City it was he stated likely the th or th podcast he d done since February On April he spent more than hours holding a livestreamed sit-in on the Capitol approaches with Sen Cory Booker to draw attention to Republican plans to ravage the federal safety net More is more We re in a more is more climate declared Jeffries who represents a district in New York s Brooklyn borough We just have to keep doing more rallies speeches town hall meetings in Democratic districts town hall meetings in Republican districts The day we spoke a widely shared Bulwark story reported that Jeffries was discouraging Democratic representatives from traveling to El Salvador to highlight the plight of the deportees sent by Trump to rot in a maximum-security gulag Jeffries denied this as did an aide to one of the Democrats who d gone there Mentioned Jeffries I ve declared nothing other than great job to the Democrats who made the trip Still it s pretty clear that Jeffries would much rather talk about Medicaid and taxes the normal stuff of Democratic legislating than looming autocracy What most of Americans want to know he revealed is Are we fighting to make the financial sector more affordable for them Are we protecting their soundness care and are we going to battle to make sure that their future is brighter than their past When I sought him about the fury parts of the base feel toward a business-as-usual Democratic leadership he rejected the premise of my question Traveling all over the country he revealed he interacts with people who are thankful that Democrats are out there fighting on their behalf repeatedly Then he turned the conversation back to Medicaid Medicare and Social Guard A major question is whether Jeffries quotidian focus on procedures can break through the Trumpian onslaught The next limited months should reveal the answer In the opening days of this administration Congress has been an afterthought with Republican representatives declining to either check Trump or do much lawmaking But the next phase of Trump s agenda runs through the House where Republicans are negotiating a budget bill extending his first-term tax cuts now set to expire at the end of the year while cutting social programs including Medicaid Given the narrow Republican majority in the House and the likelihood of a Democratic takeover in the midterms it could be the only substantial piece of new law Trump gets to sign There s nothing more urgent that we could be doing right now than stopping Republicans from jamming their reckless and extreme budget down the throats of the American people reported Jeffries Given Republican control of Congress and the fact that budget bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority it s unlikely that the rule can be thwarted But he still holds out hope that Republicans might fail to come up with a bill that their competing factions can agree to After all assuming Jeffries keeps Democrats united in opposition House Republicans can afford only three no votes Should at least four Republicans defect commented Jeffries everything will fall apart which is a good advance for the American people and the one that we re trying to make sure takes place Big cuts bigger risks Though Trump has stated he wants to protect Medicaid the debate among Republicans in Congress isn t whether to cut it but by how much A House budget resolution passed in February instructs the Vitality and Commerce Committee to find billion to cut from the programs under its jurisdiction which would require taking an ax to Medicaid A few so-called moderates however say they ll accept only Medicaid cuts of billion to billion still a giant bite but less than what conservatives are demanding On Wednesday House conservatives commented in a letter to Mike Johnson the speaker that their assistance for the bill depends on strict adherence to the framework in the budget resolution There s also a separate parallel fight between blue- and red-state Republicans over federal tax deductions for state and local income taxes It s sort of like a prisoner s dilemma for them explained Jeffries The spending reductions conservatives want to see would mean the largest cut to physical condition care in American history the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history and doing a whole lot of other damage to affordable housing and guidance and veterans he reported Related Articles Lawmakers slam plan to use Bay Area military site for immigration detention facility Why one California Democrat sided with Republicans in vote to override state s electric car mandate California s US senators revive effort to ban assault weapons Kamala Harris returns to spotlight in major speech slamming Trump Rep Gerry Connolly measures down as top Oversight Democrat and won t seek reelection as cancer returns The moderate Republican faction knows their voters can t stomach austerity on this scale I think any time it looks like we re really hurting people that s going to piss off the American population Andrew Garbarino a Republican from a swing district in New York narrated CNN on Wednesday In all likelihood one side will eventually cave Tax cuts are the GOP s raison d tre and it s hard to imagine Republicans letting Trump s run out especially when they re desperate to juice an business sector that s slowing due to tariffs But the longer the budget process drags out the more opportunities Democrats will have to try to show people exactly how they re going to be harmed And ultimately almost any bill Republicans manage to pass is going to make several voters lives harder I petitioned Jeffries how he explained the Democrats historic unpopularity one NBC poll indicated that only of registered voters view the party positively He countered that surveys show voters preferring Democrats over Republicans in the midterm congressional races What s the majority central in terms of the House is the side-by-side comparison he commented Are we on track to taking back the House or not From that perspective at least things aren t going so badly Michelle Goldberg is a New York Times columnist