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LEADER SCHUMER LEADS ANOTHER CAPITULATION TO TRUMP  
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Marc Cooper
March 14, 2025
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_ This is a moment of maximum Democratic leverage that they will not
have again until the midterms and that is not a lock. It is a tragic,
stupid and rather repugnant move. _

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It is my distinct recollection that on Wednesday afternoon, Senate
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer defiantly announced he would be
voting NO on a Republican-written continuing resolution (CR) to
continue federal funding for another 6 months. Meaning he was ready to
see a government shut-down wholly provoked by MAGA.

“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture
on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR,”
Schumer said during a Senate floor speech. He, instead offered an
“alternative” cr for 30 days that would forego all cuts and leave
a month for negotiations.

“We should vote on that,” Schumer said. “I hope — I hope —
our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on
Friday.”

Haha.

That was yesterday. Today, he said he changed his mind and would be
voting YES with the Republicans and that in turn gives the green
light to other Democrats to follow suit and allow the MAGA bill to
pass, avoiding a government shutdown that would take place midnight
Friday.

The Republicans simply don’t have the 60 votes they need for passage
and they need a minimum of 8 Democrats to bail them out. Schumer is
now busy starting to carry the water, saving Trump and MAGA from
owning their own self--provoked shutdown.

This is a moment of maximum Democratic leverage that they will not
have again until the midterms and that is not a lock. It is a tragic,
stupid and rather repugnant move.

We have to dip a bit into the weeds to fully comprehend the scale of
this intentional fumble by Schumer and likely many other Democrats,

Last Tuesday the House narrowly passed its own funding bill that was
strictly partisan. The bill increases Pentagon funding as it will for
Trump’s failing mass deportation program.

But it also includes $13b in budget cuts for spending on social
program including that includes disaster relief for California and a
slash in funding for the National Instutute for Health. Other cuts
will remove 57% of the funding for DOD research on cancer, kidney
disease, and prostate cancer. Another $20 billion cut is targeted at
the IRS which will cause a further fall in tax monies that could
easily cost more than the $20b initial cut. While it does not place
reductions ion medicare and medicaid, it will leave several other
safety nets vulnerable, making life for the bottom half of the
population ever more difficult. No surprise, it includes no cuts for
the chainsaw DOGE machine.

Now Schumer and, privately, other Democrats say they will go along
with the Republicans because a shut down could give Trump the power to
decide what parts of the government stay open and which ones would
not. They argue this would give the The Don too much power to
dismantle the government as if anything so far has really stopped him.
It’s a weak tea argument.

Schumer today defended his switch saying:

“There are no winners in a government shutdown,” Schumer said in a
floor speech. “It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s
choice: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump
throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.”

“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a
clean CR. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of
this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take
even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse
option,” he added. “I will vote to keep the government open and
not shut it down.”

If Chuck can change his mind, so can I. This is not weak tea. It’s a
crock of Shinola.

It is true that, either way, Trump retains power to cut whatever he
wants, What’s not true is if that in the case of a shutdown there
would indeed be a loser — Donald Trump and MAGA,

MAGA controls the White House and majorities in both houses of
congress. A shutdown would be THEIR problem. Of course Trump would
blame the Democrats for the shutdown, That’s automatic. But you’d
have to be a pea brain to not understand that the real responsibility
would fall on the recklessness and hubris of the Republicans in
congress and the babbling idiot in the White House

Also, a shut down would put enormous pressure on Trump to negotiate a
settlement as many GOP House and even Senate reps whose particular
districts and states wold be most hard hit and would have to pacify
their roiled constituents. It would create a situation where, for
once, the Democrats would hold the cards and Trumo & Co, would be the
supplicants.

Oh my, we certainly would not want Trump to be so humiliated, would
we?

The final vote won’t take place until sometime tomorrow. But what
looked like a certain defeat for Trump now looks like a real
possibility for victory.

The Democrats will ultimately not get blamed for a shutdown that
didn’t happen. And crossing over the line to bail out Trump will win
them nothing except six more months of the bigly and beautiful status
quo,

One parting thought. I have long said the Democrats are not coming to
save us and I have always been happy to stay our of the muck of
Democratic infighting. It’s not my party, thank heavens. If
anything, let this move by Senate Democrats remind you that we can
save ourselves and spending energy and political capital by worrying
about the Democratic leadership is a political dead end. And after the
vote is taken, and if the Senate bill passes, make sure to write down
and memorize the name of the Democrat crossovers as they will now
officially be enabler of Trump’s rise to autocracy.

Take it away, Chuck!

_The Coop Scoop newsletter from Marc Cooper, award-winning writer,
author and retired Professor of Journalism, looking at the evolving
state of play in American politics and culture. A biting contrarian
view in every edition. _

* Chuck Schumer
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* U.S. Senate
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* Government Shutdown
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* Donald Trump
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