Democrats Threaten to Cut Off Iran War Funding Before They Take Power
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats will use Congress’s “power of the purse” to end the Iran war, and some in his party now want that fight to start before they even take the gavels in January.
POLITICO reported Friday that Democrats are weighing demands tied to the Dec. 11 government-funding deadline, arguing any year-end spending measure should block cash for the conflict.
Schumer framed the midterm results as a mandate to stop a war he says never had the consent of the American people.
“We are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war, and the Founding Fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people,” Schumer said at a post-election press conference, according to The Hill.
Four Republican senators have already sided with Democrats on a war-powers resolution directing President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran without a formal authorization for use of military force, The Hill reported.
Even a binding war-powers measure would face a Trump veto, and Democrats lack the two-thirds majorities needed to override.
That is why funding leverage matters more than floor resolutions.
House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro said Democrats “will absolutely not fund Trump’s war of choice with Iran that has increased costs on American families and made us less safe,” POLITICO reported.
Democratic leaders have not locked in a Dec. 11 cutoff strategy, and a shutdown fight could spill into January and overshadow other majority priorities.
Sen. Brian Schatz, expected to become Senate Democratic whip, has said bipartisan defense authorization and appropriations will be “extremely difficult” if the war is still underway, The Hill reported.
The White House sought nearly $70 billion in emergency Pentagon funding in June, a request that stalled amid Democratic opposition, according to The Hill.
Oil markets have already priced in de-escalation bets after Democrats flipped Congress, with crude plunging after the midterms as traders wagered funding pressure would force an endgame.
Trump has insisted he would “do it again” even while conceding the Iran war hurt Republicans at the ballot box, keeping the confrontation on a collision course with a Democratic Congress.
For voters who blamed higher gas and grocery prices on the conflict, the next test is whether Democrats are willing to risk a shutdown to starve the war of money — and whether enough Republicans join them to make the threat real.
Republicans still control both chambers until Jan. 3, so any December funding fight would require Democratic unity plus enough GOP defections to force Trump’s hand — or a shutdown standoff neither party fully controls.
Schumer’s conference comments and DeLauro’s hard line together sketch the majority’s opening Iran play: starve the war, dare Trump to veto the broader government bill, and argue voters already chose sides on Tuesday.
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