Senate Democrats are dancing with the devil in the sinister form of Schumer's closure.
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (NY) announced Wednesday afternoon that he would reject the House Pass government's plan to maintain government funds past the Friday deadline until the end of the fiscal year on September 30th.
“While funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, Republicans chose a partisan path and drafted an ongoing resolution without any opinions from Congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “So Republicans have not voted in the Senate to call House CR coagulation.”
Senate law requires 60 votes to call coagulation. This is the necessary step to end the discussion and move the bill forward.
Senate majority leader John Tune is calling Schumer's bluff. He moved forward to schedule a vote to call solidification on Wednesday evening on Friday.
Thune has 53 Republicans in Schumer's 47 Democrats, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) says he is against the CR. So it's necessary for eight Democrats to call coagulation and quickly track the bill.
There is only a total of 99 pages of a relatively neat and continuous solution (CR). Contains minimal modifications to current spending levels. This includes $485 million of immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) demanded by President Donald Trump's border emperor Tom Homan, which will promote continued deportation.
Apart from these minor revisions, Democrats overwhelmingly supported these spending levels in December, but freezes current spending levels throughout the fiscal year is a monumental achievement for Republican spending hawks.
The CR passed the House on Tuesday with one Democrat and one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massey (R-KY), backing his party. Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other Trump administration officials have invested important political capital to pass the bill.
The ball is now in the hands of Senate Democrats and is not used to the pressure of ownership and late in games.
But despite their harsh attitude, Democrats who voiced up protesting against the freeze on federal funds for Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency and the firing of government officials may face Hobson's choice against the bill.
By rejecting House Pass CR and triggering a shutdown, Democrats will strike hundreds of thousands of government officials and undermine anticipated concerns about those workers.
Essentially, the only policy Democrats have opposed since Trump took office is the termination of Trump for government officials and the freeze on funding and employment. Shutting down the government and rejecting overwhelming spending levels by the Democrats backed in December, their only message will be controversial.
With Republicans taking the lead and so far, Democrats have not emerged as party message and moral leaders in Trump's second year era, Democrats rarely draw concessions from the Senate, House of Representatives, White House, momentum and seemingly all the cards.
If Democrats ultimately reject Thune's CR and cause a shutdown, it's unlikely that Republicans would acknowledge anything that matters to Democrats and invite them to end them.
And clips of Democrats who have rejected shutdown politics in the past will play in an endless loop.
Democrats have advocated a 30-day CR to allow work to continue the massive omnibus bill, and Schumer's Rank and File hopes to allow 30-day CR votes as an amendment to the House Passed All Finance Year CR. To seduce Thune, Democrats proposed allowing time contracts to be allowed that allow for quick consideration of the bill.
That's unlikely to happen. For that fix (or other) to succeed, they would require the house to return to Washington.
Democrats also continue to search for amendment votes to ensure Trump cannot spend under the level of allocated spending, and to find waste, fraud and abuse through Doge.
Again, it's not happening.
But if Thune keeps the course and Democrats refuse to allow quick legislation consideration, Democrats face another test.
Without a time contract that requires unanimous consent, the latest in the CR is Saturday evening, meaning a short but insignificant expiration of government funding over the weekend.
Forcing even a short shutdown by criticizing the inevitable delay could be a dark eye for Democrats desperately looking for a party's brand on their own.
For now, Democrats have publicly informed them that they will endure Thune. But ultimately, choosing to close the spending levels and government that they dislike may not be an option at all.
Bradley Jaye is the Associate Politics Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him X/Twitter and Instagram @Bradleyajaye.
