Sun Tzu, the former Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher, is known for his treatise, "The Art of War." It's remarkable how valuable the writings, believed to have been written in the 5th century BC, continue to be today. Forget the arguments about whether he is the one who wrote it and when. It doesn't matter. The lessons are simple, and they still work. I cannot recall a legislative decision as ridiculous as the one made Friday by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democratic Caucus he leads. After weeks of articulating the awful things contained in the Republican version of the budget continuing resolution, or CR, he abandoned his position at crunch time and chose to give it enough votes to pass. Democrats gained, let me count, zero things in exchange for their acquiescence. Two days earlier, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, told NBC News, "Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that's what we are insisting on." Apparently not for long. One of Sun Tzu's principles of war is to seize opportunity. Democrats failed that one. They seized nothing by conceding to the Republicans here. Absolutely nothing. Schumer's stated reasoning for caving was that a shutdown would create opportunity for the White House to do even more unconstitutional and damaging things. Donald Trump and Elon Musk weren't asking congress for permission before Friday's vote. Now that the shutdown has been averted, they still aren't. I think the mere existence of the filibuster is dumb, and I always have. The 60-vote necessity to proceed, particularly on CRs, served Republicans well throughout Joe Biden's presidency. Likewise, it should have been used last week by the Democrats to either block the CR or to gain concessions by using it as leverage. It's the reason it exists. Neither happened. Worse yet, Schumer and the Democrats gave the Republican budget package ten votes, when all the concession required was seven. By giving the GOP three more votes than they needed, it gave Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, the freedom to vote no on the package for his personal, political reason that the package doesn't reduce debt. That's simply malpractice.   Connect with Michael Leppert Visit michaelleppert.com to read the full post and links to any resources or articles mentioned. Twitter @michaelleppert  Facebook at Michael Leppert Michael Leppert is an author, educator and a communication consultant in Indianapolis. He writes about government, politics and culture at MichaelLeppert.com. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Indiana Citizen or any other affiliated organization.  

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