Democrats do not hold the House, Senate, or the White House, but they are wielding some unexpected power as a budget vote looms to avoid a government shutdown at the end of April.
"I think we have a lot of leverage here," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told The Washington Post.
"[Republicans] are going to need our help putting together the budget, and that help means we can avoid some of the outrageous Trump proposals and advance some of our own proposals."
Democrats are seizing on the pulled American Health Care Act vote, which has pitted the conservative House Freedom Caucus against moderate Republicans and the White House. It has led to talk the White House needs to ditch the conservative opposition and reach out to the opposition it did not expect to need to move legislation in a GOP-held Congress.
"I think most of our caucus wants to work with them," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told the Post. "But it requires working in a compromise way."
If the congressional Democrats can give a bit on the budget, they might be able to leverage some give on other agenda items on healthcare and the shaky GOP support of the pricey Mexican border wall.
"We would not be opposed to any border security measures that are not the wall — increasing technology," House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday, per the Post. "There are better things that we can be doing."
Funding for enhanced border security is not the budget hangup for Democrats as much as the ideology of the wall.
"If they asked for $200 million for more electronic surveillance and drones on the border, I don't think that would cause many hackles in our caucus," Schumer told the Post.
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