Very early in President Donald Trump’s current term, a continuing resolution (CR) was utilized to keep the government operational.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rallied enough Democrat support to pass a procedural vote, which enabled the GOP to pass the spending bill with a simple majority.
This time around, Schumer is willing to let the government shut down, only now he is pushing the narrative that it will be the fault of Republicans, not Democrats.
Schumer was smart enough to know the first time around that the party that is not in power usually takes the blame for any shutdown.
So, when it came time to stand up against the Trump administration earlier this year, he caved, stating, "I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the American people.”
He concluded, "Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open, and not shut it down."
Schumer has been talking about not giving in this time, so Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is making his fellow Republicans aware of the situation.
Thune is going on the offensive, stating, “I think he [Schumer] probably thinks that it’s beneficial to their political base, the far left of the Democrat Party, and you can kind of see what’s happening up there in New York politics.”
He later added, “This is a party struggling for an identity. This is a party that’s completely out of step with the mainstream of this country.”
Thune is 100% right in that Democrats have no clear direction right now, and Schumer has been horrible in leadership, so the attack was perfect, but Schumer did not wait long to respond.
The comments made by Thune got Schumer's attention, and he is now trying to mount a counterattack against the possible shutdown by blaming it all on the Republicans, even though the GOP will likely vote in unison to fund the government.
Schumer stated, "We all want to pursue a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations process."
He continued, "That's how it's always been done, successfully, and we believe that, however, the Republicans are making it extremely difficult to do that."
That is a bit of a twist, as Democrats rammed through partisan funding for four straight years.
Sadly, that is the temperature in D.C. right now. Everyone claims they are willing to work in a bipartisan fashion, but Democrats never asked for GOP input in these spending bills when they held the reins, and now that the GOP is returning the favor, Schumer and company are crying foul.
