Schumer ready to shut down government during next budget bill

During the first spending bill, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blinked and allowed the bill to pass after helping the GOP pass a procedural vote to allow a simple majority to pass the bill.

Schumer took a lot of heat over that, but he justified his position by saying shutting down the government would have done more harm than good.

Well, he is changing his tune after the BBB was passed and a massive rescissions package looms.

Won’t Block It

Going back to March, Dems wanted Schumer to stand tall to block the spending bill to keep the government rolling along.

Schumer had initially hinted that he would not support the measure, but he eventually changed his mind. Schumer did not get support to back the bill, but he rallied enough votes that would allow the GOP to pass the bill with a simple majority.

He stated, “There are no winners in a government shutdown. It’s not really a decision; it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.

“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR [continuing resolution]. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option. I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.”

Paying the Price

Schumer was immediately called out for allowing the GOP to power through, but he did not back down from his stance.

Schumer defended himself, stating, “There is no off-ramp,” for a government shutdown. He continued, “The off-ramp is in the hands of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and DOGE. We could be in a shutdown for six months or nine months.”

The liberal group Pass the Torch went after him right away, announcing, “Chuck Schumer is unwilling and unable to meet the moment. His sole job is to fight MAGA’s fascist takeover of our democracy — instead, he’s directly enabling it.”

The outrage was so heated, there was even talk of primarying Schumer, which he brushed off, insisting that the outrage over this would be yesterday’s news by the time his election came back around.

Not This Time

My, oh my, what a difference a few months make, as Schumer is now ready to dig in and lock everything down before he will let that next continued resolution bill go through the Senate.

Schumer stated, “Ask the Republicans why they are heading on this path. We are doing everything we can to keep the bipartisan appropriations process going. And they’re undermining it with rescissions, with pocket rescissions, with impoundment and every other way.”

Senator Majority Leader Thune (R-S.D.) responded, “I was disappointed to see the Democrat leader … implicitly threaten to shut down the government. I’m hopeful that that is not the position of the Democrat Party, the Democrat conference here in the Senate, and that we can work together in the coming weeks to pass bipartisan appropriations bills.”

Here is my question… we just passed a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill, yet, for some reason, that did not contain enough to keep the government operational so we don’t have to keep using CRs to keep the government open? The rescissions package has a deadline of July 18, so I guess we will find out next week if Schumer is going to dig in or give Trump another free pass.