Chuck Schumer Willing To Shut Down Government Over Budget Fight
Image by getty images
Following President Trump’s controversial budget proposal boosting the military and slashing Meals on Wheels and other safety net programs, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that his caucus is willing to shut down the government to defeat the White House’s blueprint.
“If they put those poison pill amendments in and try to shove them down the American people’s throats, of course they might be responsible for shutting the government down,” the New York senator said in a Thursday press conference. According to him, proposals to slash domestic spending, defund Planned Parenthood and allot monies to a border wall are non-starters in budget negotiations.
Schumer’s Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell accused his fellow leader of hypocrisy, now that Democrats are in the minority.
“I’m amused by the Democrats apparently warming up to the idea that threatening to shut down the government is a good idea. It seems to me everybody’s got kind of memory loss on the other side,” he told reporters. Republicans briefly shuttered the government four years ago after a budget disagreement with former President Obama.
The two sides have until late April to fund the government and avert a shutdown.
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
