A government shutdown looks increasingly likely as Democrats continue pushing for “unhinged” spending for any government funding bill.
President Trump had planned to sit down with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday but canceled the meeting when it became clear Democrats' demands were non-starters.
“The Democrats’ requests are completely unhinged and unreasonable and unserious, and if they want to have a serious conversation … I’m sure the president … would be happy to do that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told CNN. “But at least right now, what they’re asking for to keep the government open for seven weeks is over a trillion dollars in new spending and all kinds of policy riders that never go on continuing resolutions …”
Thune pointed out that Democrats had no problem passing a continuing resolution 13 times when they were in the majority and former President Biden was in office, with help from Republicans.
“Those are clean spending, continuing resolutions to fund the government for a foreseeable time in order to allow something else to happen,” Thune said. “In this case, we’re trying to do this to allow the normal appropriations process to get underway so that we can pass bills the old-fashioned way, which is through the Appropriations Committee, on the floor in the Senate, where every senator has an opportunity to make their voices heard. So this is a short-term extension of existing funding, current funding. The Democrats are trying to hijack it to get a trillion dollars in new spending. And I don’t think that’s a very good deal for the American taxpayer and it appears at this point the president has come to the same conclusion.”
Democrats’ requests are completely unhinged, unreasonable, and unserious.
— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) September 24, 2025
Republicans have a clean, short-term CR to fund the government to allow for a bipartisan appropriations process to continue. It’s time for Democrats to get serious. pic.twitter.com/3wsl7x0xfP
Democrats’ list of demands includes wiping out a $50 billion rural hospital fund and $1 trillion in new spending.
— Leader John Thune (@LeaderJohnThune) September 24, 2025
A bill to fund the government should not be hijacked to cater to their far-left base. pic.twitter.com/mKcryysuFK
.@StephenM: Democrats have been clear — they will not fund law enforcement, the military, or public safety, unless they get free health care for illegals.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 24, 2025
"We will see if there's enough Democrat senators who are dumb enough to follow Chuck Schumer off the edge of that cliff." pic.twitter.com/cGQ2yg0LSx
Some of the demands from Democrats' wishlist include "FREE healthcare to illegal aliens, half a billion dollars to prop up liberal news outlets, other leftist priorities, and a MASSIVE $1.5 TRILLION spending HIKE in a simple 7-week funding bill," said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). "They are holding government funding hostage."
The problem is that Democrats only want to meet to repeat their demands that we include FREE healthcare to illegal aliens, half a billion dollars to prop up liberal news outlets, other leftist priorities, and a MASSIVE $1.5 TRILLION spending HIKE in a simple 7-week funding bill.… https://t.co/YDudA5fAT7
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) September 24, 2025
REMINDER: House Republicans have already done the job of passing a clean, bipartisan bill to keep the government open.
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) September 24, 2025
Now it’s up to Senate Democrats - who have long said shutdowns are bad and hurt people - to vote to fund the American government, or shut it down because they… https://t.co/w6vH562Giv pic.twitter.com/QfXy3dRGLc
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) September 24, 2025