Chuck Schumer Willing To Shut Down Government Over Budget Fight

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By Daniel J. Solomon March 17, 2017

Following President Trump’s controversial budget proposal boosting the military and slashing Meals on Wheels and other safety net programs, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that his caucus is willing to shut down the government to defeat the White House’s blueprint.

“If they put those poison pill amendments in and try to shove them down the American people’s throats, of course they might be responsible for shutting the government down,” the New York senator said in a Thursday press conference. According to him, proposals to slash domestic spending, defund Planned Parenthood and allot monies to a border wall are non-starters in budget negotiations.

Schumer’s Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell accused his fellow leader of hypocrisy, now that Democrats are in the minority.

“I’m amused by the Democrats apparently warming up to the idea that threatening to shut down the government is a good idea. It seems to me everybody’s got kind of memory loss on the other side,” he told reporters. Republicans briefly shuttered the government four years ago after a budget disagreement with former President Obama.

The two sides have until late April to fund the government and avert a shutdown.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

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