Still locked out of power in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his party are seizing on a fresh battle with\u00a0President Donald Trump: a high-stakes gamble over this month\u2019s government funding deadline.<\/p>\n
With a shutdown on the line, Schumer and other top Democrats in Congress are vowing to play hardball against Trump. One of the party\u2019s biggest demands: They want Republican leaders to commit to billions of dollars in enhanced Obamacare subsidies that would otherwise expire at the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump would rather shut down the government than even talk to Democrats about lowering the cost of health care for Americans,\u201d Schumer told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n
But by taking that hardline approach, Democrats are also taking a major political risk.<\/p>\n
Party leaders and rank-and-file are publicly projecting a united front, and many Democrats are truly eager for a fight with Trump. But behind the scenes, some are also worried about the party\u2019s exit strategy if Trump and the GOP refuse to cave. They fear that a shutdown could wreak havoc across the country \u2014 only for Democrats to ultimately yield to Republicans with nothing in exchange.<\/p>\n
One Democratic lawmaker close to leadership acknowledged that the party is heading into uncertain territory with its shutdown threat, but said there were simply no other options.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you if it\u2019s gonna be a good play or a bad play on shutting it down,\u201d the Democratic member said. \u201cThe point is, nothing else has worked to stop their momentum. You gotta throw some tacks in the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others in the party are more anxious about what happens if Trump and his administration begin yanking resources like food stamps and blaming Democrats for the lapse. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to play this shutdown game and win,\u201d one senior aide to a Democratic centrist added.<\/p>\n
A funding lapse on October 1, of course, isn\u2019t yet guaranteed.<\/p>\n
Republican leaders in the House and Senate believe Schumer wants to find an off-ramp, according to multiple GOP sources. Some Democrats, too, still publicly and privately hope that Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune can reach a deal on the enhanced subsidies, even if it\u2019s not formally included in a funding agreement, multiple Democratic sources said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Saturday sent a letter demanding a meeting with the president, who Democrats say isn\u2019t talking to them at all. Hours later, Trump signaled openness to meeting with the Democratic leaders but doubted whether it would make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to meet with them, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to have any impact,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n
Some saw Friday\u2019s Senate votes\u00a0sinking both Democratic and Republican plans\u00a0as leverage points \u2014 rather than real shutdown threats \u2014 with so many days to go before the deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cA government shutdown is not good for everyone. No one ever wins and the American people fail,\u201d Rep. Ami Bera, a centrist from California, told CNN. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t make plans on [September] 29 or 30 because we might be back.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Republicans insist there\u2019s no reason to have a conversation over health care at all as part of this funding bill, which would simply keep the government operating at status quo through late November.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooks to me like it\u2019s this or a shutdown,\u201d Thune said plainly when asked about Democrats\u2019 choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys just didn\u2019t listen to the voters last November,\u201d House GOP Whip Tom Emmer added of Democrats\u2019 health care demands.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers left Washington on Friday without a clear path forward.<\/p>\n
Both sides remained dug in with no plans to vote again until a day before the deadline, and no one on Capitol Hill can predict what happens before then. But for now, Democrats are leaning into their spotlight moment and insist they\u2019re not backing down.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump says he doesn\u2019t want to talk. He\u2019s still in the go-to-hell mode. His marching orders to Republicans are don\u2019t even bother with Democrats,\u201d Schumer told reporters on Friday, after he and nearly every Democrat in Congress opposed the GOP\u2019s plan for a seven-week stopgap. \u201cThey, by not negotiating, are causing the shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a notable position for Schumer, who\u00a0triggered fierce backlash\u00a0in his party this spring by helping Trump and Republicans keep the government open without anything in return. This time, he said, \u201cthe world is totally changed,\u201d and the American public has \u201cseen the damage the Republicans are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republicans still need at least seven votes in the Senate on any funding bill and Democrats say they won\u2019t back the current GOP funding plan. Republicans, meanwhile, say they have no reason to offer anything else.<\/p>\n
Schumer has faced intense pressure inside the Capitol not to yield this time, including from Jeffries. Many in the party, including Jeffries, see the funding fight as a chance to take a high-visibility stand against Trump and his policies with the whole nation watching closely, according to people familiar with his thinking. A shutdown is bad, they say, but this is their only real leverage point with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the Republicans\u2019 shutdown. We\u2019re fighting for the health care of the American people,\u201d a forceful Jeffries declared from the Capitol steps on Friday, surrounded by dozens of his members. \u201cWe will do that today. We will do that tomorrow. We will do that next week. We will do that next month. We will do that this year. We will do that next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont argued Trump and the GOP have broken years of precedent by refusing to engage with Democrats on a bipartisan funding bill. While he was adamant that he doesn\u2019t want to see a shutdown, he added: \u201cIn every other situation we\u2019ve had here, there\u2019s been a negotiation. \u2026 It\u2019s a new world with Trump, and he probably does want a shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the GOP\u2019s insistence they will only put up a status-quo funding bill, he said: \u201cThat\u2019s today. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Schumer and Senate Democrats were to accept a side deal on the Obamacare enhanced subsidies \u2014 without putting it into a funding law \u2014 it would likely infuriate House Democrats.<\/p>\n
Many in the party remain distrustful of Schumer after the party-wide reckoning in March, when he yielded to Trump on that earlier funding bill. Schumer and Jeffries have insisted publicly they are in full alignment this time, but even close confidantes of both leaders say they can\u2019t predict what happens next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he saw the consequences [of] what happened to him in March,\u201d Rep. Ro Khanna told reporters, when asked if Schumer would hold the line on the funding bill.<\/p>\n
Asked the same question, progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, declined to answer: \u201cYou\u2019d have to ask Mr. Schumer.\u201d<\/p>\n
One senior Democrat who speaks to both party leaders regularly said it\u2019s unclear whether Schumer can hold the position: \u201cWe hope so. We don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some House Democrats are working behind the scenes to keep up the pressure on the New York senator. In one instance, a report that said progressive force Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is considering a primary run against Schumer surfaced the morning of the Senate\u2019s big funding vote. (Asked by CNN, Ocasio-Cortez would not comment on whether she is considering a run in the 2028 primary.)<\/p>\n
For now, both sides acknowledge there\u2019s no clear way out without a big U-turn by one party, but they\u2019re also quick to place the blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re asking for is super reasonable,\u201d Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said. \u201cRepublicans refuse to negotiate with Democrats, they\u2019re sending us home next week. It\u2019s 100% clear they want a shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is the House minority leader.<\/em><\/p>\n CNN\u2019s Morgan Rimmer, Arlette Saenz and Camila DeChalus contributed to this report.<\/p>\n For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at\u00a0CNN.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Still locked out of power in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his party are seizing on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1862,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/1862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}