Matt Yglesias came out with a piece on the dynamics happening here and I largely agree with it. Dems were banking on the House being unable to pass a CR themselves, and once they did, they boxed Dems into a corner. All of the options suck but I increasingly think eating this shit sandwich is likely the best outcome.

Yes having a bipartisan funding bill with clear allocation instructions would be far preferable, but while it contains a spattering of shitty inserts (including a particularly onerous one for the DC budget) the CR passed lacks anything that could be categorized as politically red-line poison pills. In addition, the impoundment debate is ultimately have to be settled by the Supremes, and that was always going to be the case. The Dem base is fooling themselves into believing they could shutdown-their way into forcing the bill to tie Trump's hands re: RIFs and spending decisions. Maybe in retrospect the House should've held their cards close to the chest until the vote, but I'm not sure if that was actually feasible.

I'm still confident the Court is not going to rule in the Administration's favor regarding impoundments, but if they do, then the floodgates are open when the next Dem President enters office. Half of ICE funding? . . .now it's going to environmental justice. Space force contracts? Now it'll be used for expanding healthcare, thank you very much. Don't think they want to open those floodgates.