Tipsheet

It's Pretty Simple Why Schumer Caved on the Shutdown Antics

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  March 14, 2025 4:30 PM

On the Hill, the Democrats are in total chaos: House Democrats want to rip the throats out of Senate Democrats—and everyone hates Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) right now. The New York liberal threw up the surrender cobra on yesterday's spending bill fight.

The first cloture vote failed to clinch 60 votes, but there was no plan. The Democrats have no strategy for handling a shutdown duel with the Trump White House, which was apparent after yesterday’s lunch among Senate Democrats. Schumer balking at a shutdown caused a meltdown among liberal America, and congressional Democrats seemed angry but also rudderless (via Politico): 

Ezra Levin, the co-executive director of the liberal grassroots organization Indivisible, quickly dubbed it the “Schumer surrender.” 

“I guess we’ll find out to what extent Schumer is leading the party into irrelevance,” he said in an interview, adding that his decision “tells me maybe he’s lost a step.” 

The news that the top Senate Democrat would be backing down dejected scores of House members who were gathered at a resort about 25 miles outside of Washington for the Democratic Caucus’ annual policy retreat. 

They had stuck together behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had wrangled all but one of his members to oppose Republicans’ seven-month funding patch earlier in the week. 

[…] 

“For Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift,” Schumer said. “It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda. 

“Right now, Donald Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock market,” he added. “In a shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to reopen, which to keep closed, instead of debating the damage Donald Trump’s agenda is causing the American people.” 

Some Democrats offered some sympathy, given the dilemma he and other senators faced. The GOP-written stopgap cuts some $12 billion in domestic funding while adding money for migrant deportations and some other programs Democrats oppose. It also contains no language that would stop the Trump administration from continuing to hold back congressionally approved spending. 

But Schumer argued there was no telling what Trump and Musk would do in a shutdown, where the White House would “have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired,” he said. 

“I don’t think he had a choice,” Democratic National Committee member Joseph Paulino Jr. said, adding that Democrats “don’t have any cohesive plan. They don’t have a strategy. They don’t have any clear direction where they want their … opposition to go.” 

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, called it a “challenging” choice for Schumer even as she called a temporary shutdown “a better option than passing a bad bill.” She predicted blowback from grassroots activists but demurred on how lasting it might be. 

Schumer's failing economy talking point is just not valid anymore. Also, inflation, egg prices, and home mortgage rates are decreasing.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was in no mood to talk about Mr. Schumer but was equally frustrated at the narrative about Democratic Party disarray. Sorry, man, that’s what’s happened today on the Hill: a total civil war erupted where Nancy Pelosi urged all out rebellion against Chuck. For some parts of today’s presser with House Democrats, they’re more concerned with the message of Democratic Party unity than what they’d do in a hypothetical shutdown fight. All we know is that Jeffries is not afraid, or something. He couldn’t get past anything else after that, however. 

When there’s no plan or message, there’s nothing much you can do, especially when the political situation doesn’t favor you.

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