Few things remain as true over time as this: Government shutdowns never work like the opposition wants. When a minority party forces a shutdown, they essentially abdicate the power to the president, who then can use it to punish that party and their allies. In no other context does the humorous adage "beatings will continue until morale improves" apply more than a government shutdown.
Only an idiot would push for a shutdown while his party doesn't control the White House. Are Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries idiots? We'll see, but they do seem to be looking for an exit -- as well as a spin room:
President Trump has agreed to meet with Democratic congressional leaders this week as lawmakers face a Sept. 30 deadline to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown. ...
The New York Democrats had written to Trump on Saturday, demanding a meeting – one day after all but two Senate Dems rejected a stopgap bill that would keep funding at current levels through Nov. 21.
“We write to demand a meeting in connection with your decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the healthcare of the American people,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote in their letter to the president.
Ahem. It's not Trump who decided to shut down the government, nor Republicans in Congress. The House passed a clean CR that extends the FY2025 spending baseline several weeks in order to complete overall budget negotiations. Democrats, led by Schumer in the Senate, refuse to vote on the clean CR because they want to use the October 1 deadline as leverage to get concessions from Republicans. With the House CR in hand, Trump can just tell them to vote for the bill and let the negotiations take place while the government remains open.
Semafor explains why Trump is likely to take that position, regardless of what's said in the meeting:
He can embrace a simple stopgap funding bill without making big demands because he’s already gotten what he wanted from the recent party-line tax-cuts law, including border wall and immigration funding, a military spending boost, and a $5 trillion debt ceiling hike.
Should Washington tip into a shutdown, Trump’s fusillades against Democrats will be a welcome diversion from the Epstein case, a weakening economy, and other pressure points.
“The president is not going to negotiate from a position of weakness,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. “We passed ‘one big beautiful bill’ to avoid [Democrats] being able to hold this hostage.”
John Fetterman seems to be the only Democrat who sees the box canyon ahead:
“They’re begging us to shut it down. That’s a honey trap,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. By making health care funding their “red line,” Fetterman added, Democratic leaders have “effectively just painted themselves into their corner.”
Honey trap, briar patch, box canyon -- pick an analogy, any analogy. They all work. Trump probably would prefer to avoid the shutdown, just because the Protection Racket Media would go into propaganda overdrive to blame him for it when a clean CR sits on the table for Democrats. But he's not going to cry much, because presidents run shutdowns. Presidents get to decide what qualifies as "essential services," and what does not. Barack Obama knew that, and would have made Republicans pay for an ill-considered shutdown in October 2013 ... if his disastrous rollout of ObamaCare's key portals hadn't stepped all over the story.
In this case, we have a president who already wants to "drain the swamp" and gut the federal bureaucracies. What do Schumer and Jeffries think Trump will do with a shutdown engineered by Democrats? Trump will shut down and shutter offices that provide massive union support to Democrats. He'll suspend subsidies to Democrat-allied groups and localities, especially urban cores that balk at Trump's policies already. The Department of Education? Gone. If Trump really wants to play hardball, he'll refuse to allow back pay to furloughed bureaucrats, or at least make that position clear from Day One of the shutdown.
So let's get back to the first question: Are Schumer and Jeffries idiots? Not really, no -- which is why they want a meeting to see if they can save a little face while throwing in the towel. That's a desperation move; just by taking the meeting, Trump is making himself look reasonable. He's not likely to help them out of the trap they set for themselves, at which point we'll get the definitive answer as to idiocy.
Update: Trump decided to pull out of the meeting this morning:
After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive. They are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!), force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody. These Radical Left Views and Policies is what allowed me to win the Presidential Election, including all seven Swing States, and the Popular Vote, IN A HISTORIC LANDSLIDE. There are consequences to losing Elections but, based on their letter to me, the Democrats haven’t figured that out yet. They are trying to eliminate the popular $50 Billion Dollar Rural and Vulnerable Hospital Fund, which was passed with only Republican Votes, and proudly signed into Law by ME. The Democrats in Congress seem to have totally lost their way. They obviously have no idea what it means to put America First or to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! All Congressional Democrats want to do is enact Radical Left Policies that nobody voted for — High Taxes, Open Borders, No Consequences for Violent Criminals, Men in Women’s Sports, Taxpayer funded “TRANSGENDER” surgery, and much more. Few people voted for what they represent, which would lead to the destruction of America. Instead, people voted for COMMON SENSE, and that’s what the Republicans and your President, “DONALD J. TRUMP,” stand for. I look forward to meeting with them if they get serious about the future of our Nation. We must keep the Government open, and legislate like true Patriots rather than hold American Citizens hostage, knowing that they want our now thriving Country closed. I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter. They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand. To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court. I look forward to meeting with you when you become realistic about the things that our Country stands for. DO THE RIGHT THING!
In other words, Schumer and Jeffries want to reverse the main thrusts of the reconciliation package. That’s a debate during the budget talks, though, not really a CR concern. The ball is back in Schumer’s court. He can either relent on the CR and try to get some of these asks, or hand Trump the keys to the Swamp. Stay tuned.
Editor's Note: President Trump is leading America into the "Golden Age" as Democrats try desperately to stop it.
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