Democrats don’t officially take charge of the Senate until January, but they’re already jockeying about the scope of their agenda over the next two years.
They know President Donald Trump, who dubbed himself “Mr. Veto,” will still be around to block sweeping proposals they’d like to become law. The question they are debating is whether to spend time trying to pass them anyway to put pressure on Trump and congressional Republicans, or focus instead on more immediate issues to lower costs and tackle corruption.
For Abdul El-Sayed, the senator-elect from Michigan, the answer is to do both.
“There’s really not a limit to the things that we can do if we’re willing to work hard and we’re willing to to drive our goals. We have, you know, God willing, a 56-seat majority, and I think we need to use it,” El-Sayed told The Washington Sun in an interview on Sunday, referring to the yet-to-be called Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska.
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El-Sayed said he would “love” to vote on Medicare for All, as well as vote to end the war in Iran and roll back Trump’s tariffs and his cuts to Medicaid.
Progressives believe Democrats need to show voters — who just delivered Republicans a massive midterm rebuke over the Iran war and the economy — that they can be more than just the anti-Trump party. And that means using their legislative majorities next year to push forward bold policies, including a major expansion of health care coverage, campaign finance reform and a big hike in the minimum wage.
“Trump has the constitutional right to veto if he wants to do it, but we have constitutional right to represent the American people and to pass the damn thing and to show the American people we are sick and tired of maintaining a broken system,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said last week during an interview with MS NOW.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren made a similar point in a Time op-ed, taking a dig at fellow Democrats who argued the party ought to be more judicious about what they send to the White House.
“Some Democrats have already argued that it’s wasted energy to send bold policy changes to the Trump White House. I think that’s just plain wrong,” Warren wrote. “Trump says he welcomes the nickname ‘Mr. Veto.’ Well, let’s test that out by passing legislation the American people support to make life more affordable and our government less corrupt.”
Warren’s op-ed notably included a link to an article citing comments made by Sen. Brian Schatz, a top Senate Democrat and likely party whip next year. Schatz argued that voters want Congress to focus first on bringing down the high costs of gas and consumer goods, as well as reining in corruption in Washington.
“I do not think it is time to propose things that the president of the United States is guaranteed to veto,” Schatz said. “That is somewhat of a waste of energy. If we want to be more aspirational, if we want to make more bold policy changes, we’re going to have to take the presidency and both chambers, and that’s for 2028.”
“I think people want us to do, not everything, but a few things to take the pain away from what they’re experiencing,” he added.
So far, top Democrats have laid out an agenda that includes ending the war in Iran, rolling back Republican cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance, repealing the president’s global tariffs, and extending Obamacare health insurance subsidies that lapsed in 2025. More sweeping legislation like Medicare for All is not on that list.
El-Sayed told The Sun that Democrats ought to do everything they can to prevent “a nuclear bomb” going off on Medicaid, including trying to roll back cuts enacted in the GOP tax law in a short-term spending bill ahead of a Dec. 11 deadline to fund the government.
“If we can address these cuts before they take hold, it would allay a tremendous amount of damage, and I don’t think we should miss any bites at the apple,” he said.
Trump, meanwhile, has said he is open to working with Democrats in the new Congress and believes his veto power could eventually force Democrats to cut bipartisan deals with him.
“They’ll be sending stuff up, you veto it,” he told the New York Post before the midterm elections last week. “Eventually, after a month or two of getting all vetoed — you know, it’s just waste — they come over and make a deal.”
The president’s decision to appoint Stephen Miller, his longtime aide who’s been the driving force behind a hard-line immigration agenda, makes the prospects for bipartisanship more difficult.
Several notable bipartisan bills were passed and signed into law during Trump’s first presidential term, when Democrats controlled the House, including criminal justice reform, Russia sanctions, and a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
But next year, Democrats will have full control of Congress, and Trump’s approval rating is far lower now than it was during his first term, making some Democrats bullish about their chances of actually passing laws.
“We’ve got to send stuff to him that you know he feels compelled to sign because the American people on Tuesday basically told him what he is doing is not enough,” Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly told The Sun on the sidelines of the “Crooked Con” conference in Washington over the weekend.
“I also think there’s something to be said for sending some stuff that’s more ambitious to demonstrate: If you put us in charge of Congress and the White House, here are some of the things we would like to do.”
Asked if that includes trying to pass Medicare for All, Kelly said, “Not necessarily.”
Addressing the midterm results last week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is expected to become majority leader next year, vowed that Democrats would focus on lowering costs and fighting corruption regardless of whether Trump agrees with them or not.
“Will everything pass? Will Trump sign all of it into law? Knowing Trump’s and Republicans’ intransigence, of course not,” Schumer said in a speech at the Center for American Progress headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. “But what I will promise Americans is this: The Democratic Party will fight to make your life more affordable, your government more competent, and your Capitol less corrupt — bill by bill, brick by brick, for as long as it takes for you to feel the difference.”
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