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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
‘It’s a new world with Trump’: Inside Democrats’ shutdown
gamble
By Sarah Ferris, CNN
Updated:
8:22 PM EDT, Sat September 20, 2025
Source: CNN
Still locked out of power in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer and his party are seizing on a fresh battle with : a
high-stakes gamble over this month’s government funding deadline.
With a shutdown on the line, Schumer and other top Democrats in
Congress are vowing to play hardball against Trump. One of the
party’s 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.
“Donald Trump would rather shut down the government than even talk to
Democrats about lowering the cost of health care for Americans,”
Schumer told reporters on Friday.
But by taking that hardline approach, Democrats are also taking a major
political risk.
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’s exit strategy if
Trump and the GOP refuse to cave. They fear that a shutdown could wreak
havoc across the country — only for Democrats to ultimately yield to
Republicans with nothing in exchange.
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.
“I can’t tell you if it’s gonna be a good play or a bad play on
shutting it down,” the Democratic member said. “The point is,
nothing else has worked to stop their momentum. You gotta throw some
tacks in the road.”
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. “There’s no way to play this shutdown game
and win,” one senior aide to a Democratic centrist added.
A funding lapse on October 1, of course, isn’t yet guaranteed.
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’s not formally included in a funding agreement, multiple
Democratic sources said.
Meanwhile, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on
Saturday sent a letter demanding a meeting with the president, who
Democrats say isn’t talking to them at all. Hours later, Trump
signaled openness to meeting with the Democratic leaders but doubted
whether it would make a difference.
“I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to
have any impact,” Trump told reporters.
Some saw Friday’s Senate votes as leverage points — rather than
real shutdown threats — with so many days to go before the deadline.
“A government shutdown is not good for everyone. No one ever wins and
the American people fail,” Rep. Ami Bera, a centrist from California,
told CNN. “I wouldn’t make plans on [September] 29 or 30 because we
might be back.”
But Republicans insist there’s 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.
“Looks to me like it’s this or a shutdown,” Thune said plainly
when asked about Democrats’ choice.
“These guys just didn’t listen to the voters last November,”
House GOP Whip Tom Emmer added of Democrats’ health care demands.
Schumer’s next play
Lawmakers left Washington on Friday without a clear path forward.
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’re not backing down.
“Donald Trump says he doesn’t want to talk. He’s still in the
go-to-hell mode. His marching orders to Republicans are don’t even
bother with Democrats,” Schumer told reporters on Friday, after he
and nearly every Democrat in Congress opposed the GOP’s plan for a
seven-week stopgap. “They, by not negotiating, are causing the
shutdown.”
It’s a notable position for Schumer, who in his party this spring by
helping Trump and Republicans keep the government open without anything
in return. This time, he said, “the world is totally changed,” and
the American public has “seen the damage the Republicans are
doing.”
Republicans still need at least seven votes in the Senate on any
funding bill and Democrats say they won’t back the current GOP
funding plan. Republicans, meanwhile, say they have no reason to offer
anything else.
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.
“It’s the Republicans’ shutdown. We’re fighting for the health
care of the American people,” a forceful Jeffries declared from the
Capitol steps on Friday, surrounded by dozens of his members. “We
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.”
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’t want to see a
shutdown, he added: “In every other situation we’ve had here,
there’s been a negotiation. … It’s a new world with Trump, and he
probably does want a shutdown.”
Asked about the GOP’s insistence they will only put up a status-quo
funding bill, he said: “That’s today. We’ll see.”
If Schumer and Senate Democrats were to accept a side deal on the
Obamacare enhanced subsidies — without putting it into a funding law
— it would likely infuriate House Democrats.
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’t predict what happens next.
“I think he saw the consequences [of] what happened to him in
March,” Rep. Ro Khanna told reporters, when asked if Schumer would
hold the line on the funding bill.
Asked the same question, progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who
caucuses with Democrats, declined to answer: “You’d have to ask Mr.
Schumer.”
One senior Democrat who speaks to both party leaders regularly said
it’s unclear whether Schumer can hold the position: “We hope so. We
don’t know.”
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’s big
funding vote. (Asked by CNN, Ocasio-Cortez would not comment on whether
she is considering a run in the 2028 primary.)
For now, both sides acknowledge there’s no clear way out without a
big U-turn by one party, but they’re also quick to place the blame.
“What we’re asking for is super reasonable,” Sen. Chris Murphy of
Connecticut said. “Republicans refuse to negotiate with Democrats,
they’re sending us home next week. It’s 100% clear they want a
shutdown.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Rep. Hakeem
Jeffries is the House minority leader.
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