The Pride of Chucky (Schumer)

Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer is making a monumental mistake by agreeing to vote yes on the disastrous GOP continuing resolution, and it's time for new leadership.

Of all the places for me to be during this chaotic week in Washington, DC, I was in New York City with Persist, a coalition of women in politics led by Rhonda Foxx. How ironic to be in Chuck Schumer’s own state as he attempts to help the Republicans burn the country down. The quick and dirty of this week’s chaos is this:

• Republicans have drafted and passed in the House a continuing resolution (CR) that will end on September 30th, the same day as the end of the fiscal year for 2025.

• The bill includes cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), farmer assistance, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) among others.

• A $1 billion cut in the bill specifically targets and hurts DC, which has no official representation in Congress.

• This CR only furthers Elon Musk’s and Trump’s slashes to the federal government and programs that benefit working class Americans.

Aside from the fact that using a stopgap measure to appropriate full-year funding is lazy, crazy, and usually something that the hypocritical GOP opposes, it also opens the door to a sneaky reconciliation process for fiscal year 2026 (I’ll have a follow-up article explaining what all of that means).

For right now, what we need is for Democratic senators to vote “no” on cloture for this bill. What is cloture? You likely know what a simple majority is. If there are 100 senators, a majority would be 51. You’ve also likely heard of a filibuster where senators keep debating a bill to prolong a vote on the legislation. Cloture is how a filibuster is ended. It means that rather than a simple majority, three-fifths of senators, or 60 total, need to vote yes to invoke cloture aka stopping a filibuster and allowing a bill to be voted on. Once you get past cloture, you only need a simple majority to pass the legislation, which Republicans have on their own without Democrat input.

For Senate Dems, this is the leverage that they hold. They can filibuster this awful funding legislation put forth by Republicans by saying that they won’t give them the votes they need to reach 60 senators to invoke cloture. The problem? Schumer is folding like a folding chair (we need to bring these back from the Montgomery Riverboat Brawl). Rather than standing strong against the GOP as the Senate Minority Leader and refusing to give them any votes, he has said that he will vote “yes” to invoke cloture. That essentially means voting for the CR because all that will be needed to pass it is 51 votes. The Dems will be unable to stop the legislation from passing at that point. So even if Schumer votes “no” on the legislation itself, his gesture is symbolic and useless. Like him.

Why is he doing this? Well, Schumer outlined his (flawed) reasoning in an op-ed for the New York Times. He believes that a government shutdown — which would occur without a spending bill in place by midnight tonight, March 14th — would be worse than passing this CR. It boils down to: (1) Musk and Trump firing furloughed federal employees not deemed “essential;” (2) Republicans being able to cherry pick which agencies to reopen and which to leave shutdown; and (3) Americans not receiving essential services. All three reasons are ridiculous.

First of all, federal employees are already being indiscriminately fired by Musk and Trump. Shutdown or no shutdown, the federal workforce has been terrorized and held hostage. Lawsuit after lawsuit has been brought forth against this administration, and the lawsuits would continue even during a shutdown because the courts do not close.

Second, Republicans are already cherry picking what agencies to close and which to leave open. Hello, Schumer? Where have you been? USAID — dismantled. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — dismantled. The Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Labor Relations Bureau (NLRB), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — the list goes on and on.

And speaking of CMS, let’s talk about the argument that Americans would lose necessary services and benefits. That’s already happening, too. Republicans are prepared to cut $880 billion from Medicaid, hurting millions of Americans who rely on it for health care. The cuts to the IRS would harm Americans immediately who are trying to get their tax refunds. DC residents would be harmed. So for Schumer, he is conflating a temporary loss while Dems negotiate for better with allowing a long-term harm to occur.

Essentially, he is full of it, and this is all about protecting his own pride rather than protecting Americans. Schumer and other hold outs are afraid of being blamed for a shutdown. They are too fearful to do what it takes to stand up against the party of domestic terrorists.

On another note, House Democrats and their Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, are standing strong against this GOP bill. When asked if Schumer should step down and give the Senate Dems new leadership, Jeffries replied, “Next question.” It seems House Democrats, as well as the Democratic Senators who have a spine, are very upset with Schumer. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus in particular all oppose this CR. Hey, Chucky, haven’t you learned this lesson already? When Black folks are leading the charge on something, pay attention.

I really need a folding chair, y’all.