Democrats refuse to fold over shutdown as Republican outrage builds | US federal government shutdown 2025
KWhen Chuck Schumer sat down this week to talk about the U.S. government shutdown with reporters from a closely read political newsletter, he sounded as if he were basking in his breakup with Republicans.
“It gets better every day for us,” he told Punchbowl News. Schumer explained that as the shutdown approached, Republicans believed Democrats would quickly withdraw and vote to reopen the government, but instead they stuck to their guns for a week and a half, demanding a series of concessions on health care and other issues.
There was outrage from Republicans, who denounced the Senate minority leader’s remarks on posters and ahead of news conferences. The shutdown led federal agencies to close or restrict operations across the country and forced hundreds of thousands of workers to stay home without immediate pay. Republicans argued that Schumer was acting callously.
“I’ve been asked this question many times in interviews over the last few days: ‘You look angry; you don’t get very angry.’ I don’t, but that’s beyond the pale,” Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference Friday morning, the 10th day of the shutdown. “What Chuck Schumer is doing right now is sickening.”
Hours later, the White House took it upon itself to compound the misery of government workers when Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, followed through on his threat of layoffs, the scope of which was not immediately clear. Now it was the Democrats’ turn to accuse the GOP of brutality.
“Let’s be clear: No one is forcing Trump and Vought to do this,” Schumer said in a statement. “They don’t have to do this; they want to. They callously choose to harm people, the workers who protect our country, who inspect our food, who respond when disasters occur. This is intentional chaos.”
It was the final salvo in a war that began with the end of government funding on October 1 and has since devolved into legal trench warfare. Seven Senate votes produced no progress; Lawmakers from both parties blocked the other side’s proposals from reaching the 60-vote threshold needed to advance.
Democrats are maximizing their influence in the upper chamber by refusing to reopen the government until premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans are extended through the end of the year. They also want to reverse cuts to the Medicaid program for poor and disabled Americans, restore funding to public media outlets like PBS and NPR, and stop Donald Trump from using “pocket write-offs” to cut spending.
Much of this is a non-starter for Republicans, who insist on restarting government funding before any negotiations take place. They attributed a variety of motivations to Democrats’ intransigence, from the rise of Zohran Mamdani as the Democrats’ candidate for New York City mayor to the influence of a “far-left base” that keeps party leaders in thrall.
On Friday, Johnson suggested that Democratic senators were holding out because they were concerned about the “No to Kings” protest planned for October 18; himself called it a “hate America rally” where attendees could target party leaders if they decided to end the shutdown.
“This is an ugly meeting for ugly purposes, but Senate Democrats have shown that they are afraid of this mob,” Johnson said, claiming that “Antifa crowd, pro-Hamas crowd and Marxists” would attend the meeting.
“They’re willing to hold the American people hostage so they don’t have to face an angry mob; that’s a big part of their base,” he said.
Indeed, there are external factors pressuring Democrats to stand firm on their demands, and so far they are happy with the results.
“Democrats, I think, have embraced the pushback, understood where their people want them to go, and they’re actually taking that and responding. And it’s a sight to behold. It’s a welcome strategic shift,” said Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the progressive organizing group Indivisible.
In March, Schumer opted to work with Republicans to keep the government open, leading Indivisible to call for him to resign as minority leader. Months later, Levin said his group was coordinating with Schumer’s office on actions to support Democratic lawmakers as the shutdown progressed and that he believed the party should not budge on its demands.
He said that while Democrats’ demands are “wildly popular,” Republicans should not be trusted to honor any agreement. Trump and his allies in Congress have made clear their interest in repeal packages to cut spending that could be passed on a party-line vote and approved with bipartisan support. After passing a law in July that rolled back $9 billion in funding for public media and foreign aid, Johnson said he was considering creating another.
“This regime treats the federal budget like Donald Trump’s personal bank account, and we must stop it,” Levin said. “No deal is a real deal unless you have cancellation and payment language.
“We’ve got the goods. We’re fighting for popular things. Republicans are closing rural hospitals, raising costs, and giving a lawless administration more power to do what it wants. This is a losing hand, and we want to see Democrats fight back.”
