Folks, the Schumer Shutdown is still dragging on — and it’s officially the longest government shutdown in history.
The 2018-2019 shutdown previously held the record, lasting 35 days. Yet today, the Schumer Shutdown toppled the charts, as Senate Democrats have refused to fund and reopen the government for the 36th straight day.
As I’ve shared over the past few weeks, this irresponsible achievement is rooted in Democrats’ shameless use of the American people’s pain as political leverage.
Notably, numerous left-leaning organizations and media outlets that typically provide reliable cover to the Democrat Party are breaking with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries over the ongoing shutdown. For example:
- The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the country's largest union representing federal workers that overwhelmingly donates to Democrats, is calling on lawmakers to “pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today.” The AFGE joins more than 300 organizations in demanding that Senate Democrats end their shutdown by simply passing the House’s clean continuing resolution (CR).
- The Washington Post editorial board recently urged Senate Democrats to stop holding the government hostage for their radical demands, writing, “The right answer is to reopen the government with a clean funding bill, ideally for a full year, to get food stamps flowing and federal workers back in the office, and then have a debate about ACA subsidies.”
Since Chuck Schumer refuses to take their advice, maybe he’d prefer to listen to former President Obama, who, in 2013 said:
- “Think about this, shutting down the government just because you don’t like a law that was passed and found constitutional.”
- “No Congress before this one has ever, ever, in history, been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills just to try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions.”
- “Congress needs to pay our bills on time. Congress needs to pass a budget on time. Congress needs to put an end to governing from crisis to crisis.”
But if that still doesn’t convince Chuck Schumer, he could always listen to his own words. Back in March, Schumer helped avoid a shutdown by allowing a clean CR — the same CR he’s currently blocking — to receive a vote on the Senate floor. He defended his decision at the time, claiming, “I knew it was a difficult choice, and I knew I'd get a lot of criticism for my choice, but I felt as a leader I had to do it,” adding, a shutdown would cause “devastation like we have never seen.”
The solution to end the Schumer Shutdown is quite simple: Pass the House’s clean CR.
I continue to call on our Democrat Senators, Warnock and Ossoff, to join their three reasonable Senate Democrat colleagues who are currently voting with 52 Senate Republicans to allow the clean CR to come to the Senate floor for a vote. If they do, we’d be even closer to overcoming the 60-vote threshold needed to break the filibuster so we can reopen the government and get back to our work in Washington.
Common sense must prevail so the Senate can bring this record-breaking Schumer Shutdown to an end.
 
 
