The decision by a group of Senate Democrats to vote to end the 41-day government shutdown — after extracting no meaningful concessions from President Donald Trump — has triggered outrage across much of the party.
California Governor Gavin Newsom decried the move as “a surrender,” while Illinois Governor JB Pritzker dismissed it as an “empty promise” — sentiments echoed across Capitol Hill and by party activists.
“Not a clue what they’re thinking,” said Amanda Litman, co-founder of the progressive nonprofit Run For Something, which has recruited thousands of people to run for office across the country. “Truly idiotic from top to bottom.”
Some Democrats went beyond criticizing the deal itself to lambaste Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who was perceived as failing to keep his caucus in line in a showdown his party might have won. Progressive Representative Ro Khanna of California said on X that Schumer “is no longer effective and should be replaced.”
“If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?” Khanna added.
Schumer said he would oppose the deal brokered by centrist members of his caucus with the Republican majority, but one of the moderates, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, said Schumer had been kept informed as they negotiated.
As the standoff dragged on, Democrats seemed to have some momentum, with polls showing most of the public blaming Republicans for the longest shutdown in US history and airline cancellations piling up nationwide as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy ordered flight cancellations. In addition, the administration’s decision to take its fight to withhold billions in food aid all the way to the Supreme Court was a risky political gambit.
Some Democrats said last week’s electoral victories showed that voters supported their shutdown fight. Trump himself even acknowledged the government closure hurt Republicans at the polls.
But the costs to key Democratic constituencies were also rising and the Trump administration showed little sign it was willing to consider the party’s demands to extend health-care subsidies, even when Democrats offered to temper their proposal late last week.
The moderate Democrats’ decision to back down put their party’s congressional leaders in an awkward position. Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said his caucus would continue to push for extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“We are going to continue the fight,” Jeffries said Monday. When a reporter asked if his counterpart in the Senate, Schumer, is effective and should keep his job, Jeffries’ answer was a terse “Yes and yes.”
Others within the Senate Democratic ranks were clearly frustrated.
“Standing up to a tyrant — who is willing to impose pain as leverage to compel loyalty or acquiescence — is hard,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, posted on social media. “You can convince yourself that yielding stops the pain and brings you back to ‘normal.’ But there is no ‘normal.”’\
Shaheen, meanwhile, faced dissent from within her own family. Her daughter Stefany Shaheen, a candidate for Congress, took to social media to announce her opposition to the deal, because it fails to extend the health-care subsidies.
“We need to both end this shutdown and extend the ACA tax credits,” she wrote. “Otherwise, no deal.”
For his part, Schumer tried Monday to keep the focus on Trump, and insisted that the public would pin the blame on the president when the failure to extend subsidies leads to sharp spikes in health-insurance premiums for millions.
“Republicans now own this health-care crisis,” Schumer said in a floor speech, announcing he would vote against the bill that members of his caucus would help pass. “They knew it was coming. We wanted to fix it. Republicans said no, and now it’s on them.”
“When people’s out-of-pocket costs double or triple very soon, Americans will know Republicans made it happen,” Schumer said.
That did little to quiet the second-guessing on his strategy from fellow elected officials, party activists, and commentators on the political left — and is bound to fuel speculation that his days as leader are numbered.
“Even when Schumer and centrist Democrats have been dealt a strong hand,” wrote Robert Kuttner, co-founder of The American Prospect, “these are the sort of players who would fold a royal flush.”
(Reporting by Ted Mann)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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