America's Talking - Schumer Says He’ll Now Vote to Approve GOP Spending Bill, Avoid Shutdown

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

(The Center Square) – With just a day before the potential for a government shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., switched course Thursday night and said he would vote to approve House Republicans' Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year. “I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. Just a day earlier, Schumer said Democrats would not support the House bill unless a Democratic amendment was added to shorten the stopgap budget to one month. The measure passed by the Republican majority in the House funds the government for more than six months, through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxFull story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_133f8fbc-00c4-11f0-afa4-0b2a3148f126.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. It's important to note that we are recording this on Friday, March 14th, before the U.S. Senate has had a chance to vote on a continuing resolution that would keep the government open. If the Senate does not vote to pass the GOP House bill, the government could shut down at midnight tonight.

But there are indications that the Senate will vote to support the resolution, send it to President Donald Trump's desk, who has said he would sign it. After Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer yesterday said he will now support the measure to keep the government open. Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, there's still a little bit of uncertainty about it, but now that the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate has put his vote behind it, it sounds like it'll pass today. Trump will sign it and we'll avoid a shutdown. That's right, Dan. I've never seen Democrats in more division and disarray than since this Trump election. The first time around when Trump was elected, it was uniting for the Democratic Party. They had a common enemy to fight and there were many Republican defections to empower them, emboldened them, give them some immoral authority.

This time around, they have nothing of the kind. Democrats are divided. They're angry at one another. They have no clear vision. I've really never seen anything like it since I've, been in journalism. And, you know, we saw that on display with this spending bill. So we were in danger of a government shutdown. I mean, truly, I, the closest we've been in a while. And earlier this week, you know, House Democrats were united. They were vocal in opposing this bill, this continuing resolution. You saw real unity in opposition within the Democratic Party in the House saying we don't like this bill. And then what happens? Just within 48 hours, the leader of the Senate, Senate Democrats says, oh, yeah, I guess we'll probably vote for it. And now you're seeing, you're seeing outrage.

You're seeing outrage from Democrats in the Senate who are frustrated with Chuck Schumer. And you're seeing out, you're seeing a lot of frustration from House Democrats who just, you know, took this big public stand against this same, this very bill. They're calling it a slap in the face, you know, AOC representative Alexandria Ocasio-C-Cortez, that there's, you know, a deep sense of outrage and betrayal on the Democratic Party. So there's really two stories here day and one is the CR, which is going to, you know, buy Republicans some time through September, very marginal cuts. Trump says he wants a big, beautiful bill. And to buy some time for that, we'll see if they ever get that big beautiful bill. So there's that first story. And the second story is that Democrats right now are in a tailspin. They're divided, even publicly fighting,

and the media with one another, some of the biggest leaders in the party, Chuck Schumer and AOC. And the current dispute, of course, has been ongoing for years and years and years, Congress passing these continuing resolutions, which are essentially keeping past budgets that have been passed as the status quo, so they don't have to do the hard work and dig in to work out new budget, new spending plans, something that Trump wants after this current fiscal year ends. Trump and Republicans in Congress wanted this continuing resolution to go through the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30th. Democrats wanted a shorter continuing resolution, 30 days, which would mean we'd just be back here again next month doing the same thing. The Republican bill will keep the government funded, mostly status quo, although there are some changes in the continuing resolution through September 30th, and it now looks like the state.

Senate will vote to do that. Republicans who hold a very slim majority in the U.S. Senate need eight Democratic votes to keep it going. Pennsylvania's junior U.S. Senator, John Fenerman, a Democrat, up until Schumer yesterday, he was the only Democrat that said he would support it. Now that the Senate Minority Leader, the top Democrat in the Senate, says he will vote for it as well, it likely means more Democrats are going to fall in line and they'll get the eight votes they need. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's really a way to give Democrats cover. Schumer comes out. He says, all right, guys, he knows that many Democrats will still vote against it, but it's really a signal that to the moderate Democrats to not shut down the government, the parties often do this where the party as a whole agrees to pass a bill, but the hard line and more extreme members of that party where this Republican or Democrat basically have permission to vote against it, as long as they get enough votes to vote for it. And so that's probably what Schumer's doing here. He's telling the signaling and telling the moderate Democrats who do not want to be blamed for a government shutdown, hey guys, we're voting for this. Whereas the more extreme progressive liberals like AOC can take a stay and die on this hill.

Although I'll say it's not entirely performative. I think AOC and others are very frustrated with their own party. We saw that frustration even with the last election. They felt that the way Kamala was kind of shoved on the party. with no primary was frustrating for people, the way that the Kamala Harris campaign just wasted hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, just spin it. I mean, it was, it was kind of incredible when you see how they spent that money and wasted it. All the donor money was wasted. And now you see that there's no clear message against Trump. You see Governor, like

Governor Newsom, California governor coming out and saying he doesn't agree with transgender athletes in sports suddenly, which is kind of incredible because he's been one of the leaders for Democrats on that issue. And it seems like he's, running for president and already in changing his positions. I think many Americans see through that, but who knows? He's pretty smooth guy. So Democrats are fighting each other to disarray. September, we're going to have another big funding battle. But Dan, I am a little pessimistic. I'm not sure we're going to get that big, beautiful bill. It may just be another CR to get through the election and more of the status quo here in Washington. Well, Casey, that's how it's

been done for years now. Why would things change now? but it's important for Congress to do the hard work that's necessary. Of course, since Trump's inauguration as president, he created the new Department of Government Efficiency, which has been tasked with identifying waste and fraud in the, in federal spending. By the time we get to September, when a new budget needs to be passed or another continuing resolution. Doge will have had months to dig in and find this waste. They've got time to put a reasonable budget that does not have deficit spending in it. And that's something that I think most Americans want them to do. Well, they've got the time, but I don't think they have the political

willpower because, you know, Doge, you're right. Doge is going to come up with a lot more cuts, but they're not going to get us to a deficit free bill without cutting entitlements. It's just not going to happen. So do Republicans have the political will, you know, exactly one year out from the midterm elections to vote for something that's going to cut Medicaid drastically enough to get down to no deficit? I doubt it. Now, they could get the deficit back under $1 trillion probably without making deep cuts, basically return us back to the pre-COVID spending levels, which was, you know, what our deficits never topped $1 trillion. Now, you know, the CBOs projected our budget this fiscal year is on track to be over $2 trillion.

So they could cut the deficit in half. I think that's really, I mean, that would be a pretty amazing series of cuts. It would be a win for them to say we cut the deficit in half. And they'd probably be able to do that without making really deep cuts into the entitlements, into defense spending. But if you're going to get down to no deficit, you're going to have to make some cuts that really,

really hurt and cost some people some seats. And right now, I'm not sure Republicans are willing to do that. And Democrats aren't either, by the way. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.