SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
democratic party
Critics Slam Meeks, Jeffries Pushing Off War Powers Bill Just as It Gets Enough Votes to Pass
"Each day we delay increases the risk of deeper US involvement and more lives lost," said one progressive policy adviser. "Failing to act now means owning what comes next."
Mar 25, 2026
Democratic Party leaders are under fire after it was reported that they plan to wait until mid-April to hold a vote to rein in President Donald Trump's powers to wage war with Iran.
Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday that US House lawmakers had abandoned plans to hold a vote this week on a war powers resolution introduced by Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
With a two-week recess beginning next week, postponing the vote means the earliest Democrats could force it again is April 13.
A previous war powers resolution, which came to the floor just days after the US and Israel launched the war at the end of February, failed by a razor-thin margin when four pro-war Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.)—joined the bulk of Republicans to kill it.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said at a press briefing on Tuesday that there are “ongoing conversations” about passing a war powers resolution “sooner rather than later." He said, “When we present something on the floor, it’s our determination to win.”
But Democrats would likely be in a position to "win" the vote if it were held this week. Andrew Solender reported on Tuesday for Axios that following intense criticism from the grassroots base and pressure from party leadership, "most, if not all, of the four defectors are expected to flip and vote for the measure this time."
Solender later reported that Meeks was undecided about the measure. While the New York Democrat confirmed to Axios that the party had gotten defectors on board, he said he "hasn’t decided whether to force a vote on his war powers resolution this week or in mid-April."
Democratic leadership has already been accused of attempting to sabotage a previous resolution introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) in late February by waiting to vote on it until after Trump launched the war.
Independent journalist Aída Chávez, who reported on these stall tactics in February, noted that Meeks "previously tried to delay a vote by warning 40 Democrats could oppose it. In the end, just four did."
"Now Meeks is saying he may not hold the vote because one member could vote no," Chávez wrote on social media. "If Democrats are unified, this Iran war powers resolution could actually pass... That makes Democratic leadership’s refusal to force a vote ASAP even more indefensible."
The decision to punt yet another resolution for nearly three weeks has ignited even more outrage and suspicion among progressives, especially amid reports that Trump is sending thousands more US troops to the Middle East and is mulling a ground invasion of Iran.
"It would be extremely alarming for Reps. Jeffries and Meeks to waver now on forcing a war powers vote," said Cavan Kharrazian, the senior policy adviser for Demand Progress. "Delaying a war powers vote now effectively gives Trump two more weeks to continue and escalate the war in Iran."
Ryan Grim, co-founder of Drop Site News, went further, accusing Meeks of backing off the resolution precisely "because it now may have the votes to pass." He contended that "Democrats secretly want this war to continue because it hurts Trump."
The war is indeed highly unpopular, with 59% of Americans saying it has "gone too far," according to an Associated Press-NORC poll published Wednesday. Its cascading effects throughout the economy—particularly the sharp increases in gas prices across the US—also have the potential to harm Trump, who has shed support for failing to address the high cost of living.
Andrei Vasilescu, the director of communications for Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Common Dreams that Meeks was "whipping a vote precisely so it passes, and any accusations to the contrary are absurd."
He said many members of the House are not currently in DC and that passing the resolution would require all of the "yes" votes to be present.
"Ranking Member Meeks could not be clearer about his opposition to the war, and is working through this resolution and all other available tools to hold President Trump accountable for his reckless war of choice," he added.
He noted that Meeks also introduced a motion on Wednesday to subpoena Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to testify about the war.
According to the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA), a US-based human rights monitor for Iran, at least 1,443 civilians, including 217 children, have been killed by US and Israeli strikes since the war began on February 28. Lebanon's Ministry of Health reported last week that more than 1,000 civilians have been killed by Israeli attacks as it expanded its military campaign there in early March.
"This war is a disaster, it’s unpopular, and civilians across the region are dying," Kharrazian of Demand Progress said. "This is a moment for anti-war leadership, not hesitation. The House should be on the record now, especially when reporting suggests the votes are there to pass a war powers resolution."
"Each day we delay increases the risk of deeper US involvement and more lives lost," he added. "Failing to act now means owning what comes next."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump-Endorsed Candidate Loses to Democrat in President's Mar-a-Lago Home District
Even Trump's mail-in ballot was not enough to keep Democrat Emily Gregory from winning the seat over Republican Jon Maples in a district swing of more than 13 points.
Mar 25, 2026
A Democrat in Florida running to win a state house seat in the Palm Beach district that includes US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate was declared the winner in a special election on Tuesday night, defeating the Trump-endorsed Republican in yet another powerful rebuke to the running of the country by the president and his party.
Emily Gregory flipped Florida's House District 87, defeating Republican Jon Maples, who Trump loudly endorsed and cast his vote for personally via mail-in ballot—something he wants to bar other voters nationwide from being able to do. Trump said on Monday that Maples, a financial planner who previously held office at the municipal level, was the choice of "so many of my Palm Beach County friends.”
But with almost all votes counted late Tuesday night, the Associated Press reported Gregory led by 2.4 percentage points, or 797 votes. In 2024, the district went to Republicans by 11 points.
"Republicans are vulnerable everywhere.”
Political strategist Sawyer Hackett named the obvious implication by saying, at least through November of 2026, "Trump will be represented by a Democrat in the Florida legislature."
“I think it demonstrates where the Florida voter is,” Gregory, who runs a fitness center for postpartum mothers, told Politico in an interview following her victory. “They want someone who is focused on solutions and the issues and not focused on the noise.”
“If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November,” said Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, in response to the victory. Williams noted that Gregory's win was the 29th seat that Democrats have flipped from GOP control since Trump returned to office last year.
“Gas prices are spiking, grocery costs are up, and families can’t get by," she said. "It’s clear voters at the polls are fed up with Republicans. A Trump +11 district in his own backyard shouldn’t be in play for Democrats, but tonight proves Republicans are vulnerable everywhere.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
How Democrats Can Win on Climate and Energy Affordability
The party can lead by clearly explaining why electricity prices are rising and who bears responsibility, or they can surrender the narrative to corporate pundits and technocrats increasingly aligned with Big Tech.
Mar 20, 2026
The climate change conversation is shifting globally, especially in the United States, and Democrats need to get ahead of it. This is happening against the backdrop of US emissions rising by 2.4% in 2025, reversing a previous downward trend. President Donald Trump has reshaped the debate by waging an irrational crusade against wind and solar energy while maintaining deep financial ties to the fossil fuel industry. But Democrats face a political reality they can no longer sidestep: Electricity bills are rising, and working and middle-class Americans are feeling the squeeze.
Democrats have a choice, and they need to make it now. They can lead by clearly explaining why electricity prices are rising and who bears responsibility, or they can surrender the narrative to corporate pundits and technocrats increasingly aligned with Big Tech. That industry, with a long history of extraction and exploitation, is now racing to power massive AI data centers as quickly as possible, even if doing so locks in new fossil fuel infrastructure for decades.
The Truth About Rising Electricity Bills
The truth is more nuanced than fossil fuel lobby talking points suggest, and Democrats should convey it to voters clearly. Over the past three years, utility bills have risen largely because utilities have poured money into grid infrastructure, replacing aging poles and wires and repairing damage from increasingly frequent climate disasters. Generation costs, by contrast, have fallen. Roughly 90-94% of new electricity generation added in recent years has been fossil free, coming from wind, solar, and battery storage. The capital costs of all three technologies have declined exponentially.
Bills have also increased because regulatory barriers, permitting, and interconnection delays slow clean energy deployment, particularly in blue states. But this is not simply a matter of "bureaucracy." Corrupt politicians and captured regulators, often far too close to monopoly utilities like Duke Energy and AES, also share the blame. And in 2025, the problem is intensifying: Explosive demand from AI data centers is straining regional grids like PJM and pushing prices higher. Big Tech can absorb premium electricity rates. Working Americans cannot.
A modern Green New Deal framework can address affordability and climate simultaneously, and this is the platform Democrats should run on.
Geopolitics compound the problem. Electricity prices remain tethered to globally traded fossil fuels like oil and gas, leaving Americans exposed to price volatility beyond their control, such as recently as the war in Iran.
How Trump Is Making It Worse
Trump is not solving these problems. He is making them worse, and Democrats should make sure voters know it.
His vendetta against wind energy has already raised electricity prices in New England while eliminating thousands of well-paying union jobs. His efforts to gut clean energy tax credits have slowed deployment just as electricity demand surges, increasing pollution and locking the country into a feedback loop of climate disasters and rising costs. Coal, one of the most expensive sources of electricity, remains on life support in states like Michigan for purely political reasons. Meanwhile, the systematic undermining of climate science by fossil fuel propagandists at the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and NASA will only accelerate climate-driven inflation, affecting not just electricity prices but also food costs and insurance premiums.
Trump's closeness to fossil fuel executives makes his "drill, baby, drill" rhetoric politically convenient but economically hollow, and Democrats should call it out as such. Expanding domestic drilling or seizing Venezuelan oil will not lower electricity bills, because Big Oil has no incentive to sacrifice profits. Under the Biden administration, the Federal Trade Commission found that American oil companies colluded with OPEC to inflate gas prices, costing families roughly $3,000 more per year. At the same time, Trump has signaled deregulation of AI-driven electricity demand, as the same Big Tech oligarchs who funded his campaign are now calling the shots. If policymakers want real affordability, they must confront corporate consolidation and enforce regulations that protect consumers.
The Platform Democrats Should Run On
Despite earlier missteps, particularly President Joe Biden's dismissal of inflation concerns in 2024, Democrats now hold favorable polling ratings on both climate and affordability. Voters want leadership. If Democrats fail to provide it, they risk ceding the narrative to technocrats, Silicon Valley “abundance” ideologues, and fossil fuel interests offering false solutions: more drilling and the same broken status quo.
Warning signs are already visible. Pipeline revivals in New York and climate backsliding in North Carolina and California now masquerade as "affordability" measures. Democrats must reject this framing. Abandoning climate goals will not make energy cheaper. It will make it more volatile, more polluted, and more unjust.
Democrats have never excelled at confronting oligarchs, utilities, and monopolies. But if the party wants to win on affordability and build a durable governing coalition, this is the only path forward.
A modern Green New Deal framework can address affordability and climate simultaneously, and this is the platform Democrats should run on. We know what works. Leaders like Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York and Gov. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey have shown that linking climate action to cost of living is a winning strategy. Democrats can tax the wealthy and corporate polluters to fund clean energy at scale. They can invoke the Defense Production Act to manufacture heat pumps, grid components, and other critical infrastructure domestically. They can streamline permitting for clean energy and transmission lines without dismantling environmental protections.
Polluters like Exxon and Chevron must also pay their fair share. "Make polluters pay" is not merely a campaign slogan. It is a practical funding mechanism for grid resilience, climate adaptation, and public health, and a message that resonates.
The Courage to Confront Corporate Power
Just as importantly, Democrats must confront corporate power directly and truly build on recent wins in New York to expand building power capacity. Regulators who prioritize shareholder returns over the public interest must face accountability. Policymakers must regulate Big Tech's AI build-out and require companies to pay for the grid upgrades their data centers demand. Innovative clean energy procurement, such as Google's early efforts to match data center demand with carbon-free power and flexible load management, should set the baseline, not serve as the exception. Early collaboration among utilities, the DOE, and regulatory bodies like the Federa Energy Regulatory Commission can also create incentives to use AI to modernize the grid, streamline clean energy interconnection and permitting, discover new battery materials, and predict climate disasters.
None of this happens without political courage. Democrats have never excelled at confronting oligarchs, utilities, and monopolies. But if the party wants to win on affordability and build a durable governing coalition, this is the only path forward. The 2026 midterm elections are already shaping up to be a crucial test, with some candidates taking the lead by addressing voters' real concerns about data center build-outs and rising electricity prices in their communities. Democrats have a golden opportunity to win on this. The playbook is right here. Will they use it?
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular