On Thursday evening, Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the second attempt at a continuing resolution (CR), which aimed to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. The CR, backed by President-elect Donald Trump, included a provision to suspend the debt ceiling until 2027. While the proposal had support from the majority of Republicans, a few dozen of the party, along with Democrats, opposed it.
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As America watches the budget battle wage on, other questions have arisen: Who is that purple-haired woman screaming about “President Elon Musk”?
Videos of an impassioned Democrat lawmaker have circulated across the internet. The woman in question is the 81-year-old Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a representative from Connecticut who has haunted the halls of power in Washington since 1991.
And you know what? They got scared because President Musk told them, President Musk said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Shut the government down!’ Imagine. What does he know about what people go through when the government shuts down? Are his employees furloughed? Hell no! Is he furloughed? No!
And when you shut the government down people don’t get paid, and maybe if none of us got paid if the government shut down some people on the other side of the aisle would feel differently about where we’re going in this effort. We had an agreement.
But you know this is not, this is not different from what we’ve experienced over the last year and a half or so. Think about it, Biden-McCarthy deal come together, next day walk away. Johnson-Schumer deal, next day walk away. And now this deal walk away from it.
Who do we trust in this body? And above all can the American people trust us? Trust us with their lives? When we had a moment when we came to agreement as Democrats and Republicans And then we were able to say let’s move forward.
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DeLauro has served on the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful bodies in Congress, since 1993. She is currently the Ranking Member of the committee after previously serving as Chair. DeLauro won in a three-way race for the seat in 2020, granting her significant influence over the federal budget.
The progressive lawmaker is also the Ranking Member after previously serving as Chair of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Additionally, she served as a co-chair on the House Democratic Steering Committee from 2003 to 2021.
The circulating social media posts caught the eye of Kim Kavin, co-founder of Fight For Freelancers. Last year, Kavin testified before the House Subcommittee for Workforce Protections to oppose proposed federal regulations that could misclassify and harm millions of independent contractors. Kavin points to DeLauro’s role in introducing the Worker Flexibility and Small Business Protection Act in 2020, which adversely impacts freelance and independent contracting workers under the same criteria used in California’s disastrous law, AB5.
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Trump Tells Democrats ‘You Voted for a Shutdown, You’ll Get a Shutdown’
On social media, she wrote of DeLauro:
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Some of the lawmakers hollering the loudest right now about federal workers not getting paid if the government shuts down are the same people who have been trying for years to destroy the income and careers of legitimate independent contractors nationwide. Rosa DeLauro proudly tried to take California’s horrific failure of a freelance-busting law nationwide.
DeLauro’s long tenure in Congress is another example of the need for term limits for elected officials. Serving more than three decades, the purple-streaked, jazz-hands DeLauro has accumulated significant power for her progressive causes in her decades-long climb of influence. DeLauro may seem like just another fiery Democrat on the surface, but she’s one of the most entrenched figures in Congress.