Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer raged at President Donald Trump in a video posted to social media on Wednesday as Americans and the media turn against his Democratic Party for keeping the government shut down.
“Donald Trump is a vindictive and heartless man. Never before in American history has a president cut off SNAP during a shutdown, including Trump in his first term,” Schumer said in his post.
“But now he is manufacturing a hunger crisis to bludgeon the American people so he doesn’t have to fix healthcare,” he added.
A president cannot create budgets out of thin air; spending bills must be written and passed by Congress. The president’s role, then, is to either sign them into law or veto them.
While the GOP-controlled House passed a clean spending bill a month ago, Schumer has directed Democrats in the Senate not to support it. And while some Democrats have defied him, not enough have joined all 53 Republicans to reach the 60-vote threshold to pass the measure and send it to the president.
Also, Schumer and Democrats passed Obamacare in 2010 without a single Republican vote and have kept voting to continue subsidizing the program with tax dollars ever since. Democrats extended subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic but chose to time-limit them; they are now set to expire in December.
Republican leaders have said they are willing to negotiate new subsidies for Obamacare – a program which Democrats a decade ago said would finally “fix” the country’s healthcare system – but not until a clean continuing resolution to reopen the government is passed.
Democrats have also been demanding nearly $1.5 trillion in new spending in addition to Obamacare subsidies, much of which would reimplement spending cuts already made by the GOP.
Meanwhile, the public relations tide has turned against Schumer and his party over the shutdown.
CNN acknowledged this week that the prolonged stalemate has actually helped Republicans politically. ABC News went a step further, pointing the finger directly at Democrats for causing the impasse.
CNBC is now joining the increasing number of media outlets and commentators who are urging Democrats to reopen the government and put an end to the shutdown, which is negatively affecting workers, families, and the economy.
Co-host Joe Kernen asked, “Are you ready to vote with the Republicans to reopen the government at this point, as a reasonable Democrat? Maybe others would follow you.”
Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) replied, “You know, I’m not there yet. Because we have had literally, Joe, no discussion whatsoever about how we’re going to deal with the spikes in premiums.”
Kernan cut Welch off, asking, “This is the right way to do it? By people not getting paychecks at the TSA? This is extortion! You think this…in your conscience, you think it’s the right way to do it?”
Earlier this week, CNN’s data chief Harry Enten said polling shows Trump and Republicans gaining in popularity as Democrats and Schumer continue to keep the government closed.
“You might think that given that Republicans are in charge of both the House and the Senate, a government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand. But, in fact, it hasn’t!” Enten said on Tuesday.
“We’re seeing here the Republican brand in Congress has actually improved somewhat compared to pre-shutdown, despite the fact that Republicans control [the House, Senate and White House],” he continued.
Enten cited a Quinnipiac poll posted Oct. 22 that showed that the net popularity for Republicans in Congress had improved by five points since the question was last asked in July.
“And that‘s the math that John Thune and Mike Johnson are looking at, saying, ‘Hey, why should we give in electorally speaking, when our brand has actually improved a little,” Enten said.
