Schumer finally speaks up
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Here's Trump using the exact rhetoric Schumer used...
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/14/trump-medicaid-reconciliation-taxes-border
I saw Schumer also talking about, "waste, fraud, and abuse."
These programs don't have a lot of waste, fraud, or abuse.
I wish Schumer and Pelosi would resign.
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Thought experiment. The government shuts down. Then what? Who makes the choices in the current government what gets funded, what stays shut down? Who gets blamed in Right wing media for the shutdown?
The pain of the Republican choices need to filter down to the voters that supported them for anything to change...
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Indeed. At least now the GOP owns the whole mess. Completely.
Schumer's NYT op-ed. Gift link.
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Circumstantial evidence that he's also on the take. We need people in Congress who can't be bought.
@pique said in Schumer finally speaks up:
Circumstantial evidence that he's also on the take. We need people in Congress who can't be bought.
I’m going to guess he got told by members of his caucus that they weren’t going to vote against it, and he didn’t want to be against it and lose the vote anyway.
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His editorial made me want to vomit.
He is the Senate minority leader. He is as much a part of the government as any other politician in "the government."
He rationalizes his vote and virtually declares Trump a king in only a few sentences.
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I'd like to read the NYT editorial written by the group who says they used to be the actual watchdogs of government agencies and were fired if anyone kindly has the link.
I saw the headline and made a mental note of it but I can't find the link now.
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Indeed. At least now the GOP owns the whole mess. Completely.
Schumer's NYT op-ed. Gift link.
@wtg said in Schumer finally speaks up:
Indeed. At least now the GOP owns the whole mess. Completely.
I cannot agree with the word "now". They already owned it completey. They control all three branches of government.
For caving into a partisan bill without a fight, the Democrats now share some degree of ownership of what's happening.
What's more it is horribly dishonest to vote for cloture then vote against the bill as Schumer, and I think 7 others did. What a charade.
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Yes, they certainly do control all three branches. But right now, we are the Keystone Kops compared to them. We have no coherent message and we are powerless. They have proven time and time again that they are much better at spin and messaging than the Dems are.
If the Dems had forced a shutdown, the first thing the GOP would have done is blamed whatever bad things happened, shutdown or otherwise, on the Democrats. That's the headline that would have dominated all the news cycles. They make stuff up all the time. Why stop now? Meanwhile, Musk would march on and do his thing.
The only positive I see in this is we didn't stand in their way. We can only hope they collapse spectacularly. And quickly.
Play it out. What would have happened if we had forced the shutdown? Besides standing up to them, how would it have benefitted our cause? Can we even identify what our cause/endgame is?
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You are correct that the Republicans would have tried to blame the Democrats but I'm not convinced that would have gained as much traction as some think. I think a lot of people are starting see what they voted for with Trump.
I consider not standing in their way a huge negative. It's the crux of the matter. The problem isn't just Trump, it's the whole republican congress who are not lifting a #*$^ finger to rein him in. Absolutely nothing. And they presented the Democrats with a completely partisan CR that does nothing to address the havoc Trump is wreaking on on the nation. And Schumer rolled over and said, Oh Ok, do as you please.
I think by standing up to Trump and the brain dead republicans the Democrats would have turned some heads and helped their standing among too many who think they are weak and always cave. Schumer just gave them more proof what a pushover the party is.
I don't know what would have happened if we had forced the shutdown, and it scares me to think of it, but when I hear from several people whose opinions I value, that caving was a mistake (J Rubin, R Reich, N Pelosi, etc. etc. there's a lot of them.) I'm going to go with them. Did we see Adam Schiff's video here? It's worth a watch.
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Adam Schiff...
Link to video
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There's an interview with Schumer in today's NYT Magazine (I think that's where it is--I only read it online so I sometimes get lost about what section things are in). In it, I found his argument for voting to move the bill forward compelling. He explained that there were no good options and he chose the one that did the least harm. Because if there was a shutdown, that hands all the authority to the executive branch, and they could indefinitely hold those reins and close down departments with no recourse available to the Ds. At least with the shutdown averted, there is still an avenue of opposition through the courts.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/magazine/chuck-schumer-interview.html?smtyp=cur
Can someone do a gift link?
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I carry no water for Schumer, but I can’t think of what he might do instead.
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It was interesting to read the comments on the interview. 99 percent hating on Schumer, despite what sounded like a very logical reason to vote as he did--it was to preserve the power of the courts to fight what Trump is doing.
I have to agree that he sounds out of touch about the direness of the moment. But it's hard to argue that we would be better off with the executive branch having the legal right to shut down agencies, when now they are doing it illegally and can at least be sued.
Some commenters made the argument that the pain we'd feel in a shutdown would bring about blowback from the public a lot faster.
To me it sounds like there were no good choices.
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It was interesting to read the comments on the interview. 99 percent hating on Schumer, despite what sounded like a very logical reason to vote as he did--it was to preserve the power of the courts to fight what Trump is doing.
I have to agree that he sounds out of touch about the direness of the moment. But it's hard to argue that we would be better off with the executive branch having the legal right to shut down agencies, when now they are doing it illegally and can at least be sued.
Some commenters made the argument that the pain we'd feel in a shutdown would bring about blowback from the public a lot faster.
To me it sounds like there were no good choices.
@pique said in Schumer finally speaks up:
To me it sounds like there were no good choices.
No. Of course there were no good choices, it was planned that way. All the more horrible to sink away from the moment.
The argument about the courts is the only good reason I've heard from Schumer, and yes, it's scary. But already Trump is ignoring the courts. He is deporting people despite the court order halting the deportations. And frankly, I'd rather have this whole nightmare over as soon as possible. Besides, the federal courts don't shut down right away. There was time to force the republicans to the table.
What are there? 260 Democratic members of Congress, give or take a few? And only 10 thought it was a good idea to play dead? And one of those sits at the top! This is a time for party unity and clearly those 10 are the odd ones out. They know better than the other 250!?
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Politics is the science of power. Schumer abdicated his responsibility to exercise power.
He caved one day after saying he wouldn't cave.
He went on to parrot Republican talking points about, "waste, fraud, and abuse," and to editorialize in the New York Times that Trump was some kind sovereign of the country.
I don't see how any of it was helpful at all.
