Republican leaders emerged from failed White House negotiations Monday pointing fingers directly at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Schumer is manufacturing a government shutdown to satisfy his party’s leftist wing, Republican leaders revealed.
President Donald Trump met with congressional leaders less than 32 hours before the midnight Tuesday deadline, but said Democrats refused to budge to make a deal. Vice President JD Vance told reporters the government was “headed into a shutdown because Democrats won’t do the right thing.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson accused Schumer of deliberately risking a shutdown to shield himself from a primary challenge by leftists and socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
“I fully expected that they would come into the White House today and be reasonable. But they weren’t. They dug their heels in. It’s painfully obvious that he’s got to watch his back because the young socialists are coming for him, AOC and the others, who want to challenge him for his seat,” Johnson said on Fox News’ “Hannity.” “And that is 100% what Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, by extension, are watching for. Their own political cover.”
Johnson had an ugly warning: Democrats are willing to “inflict serious damage” to the country for their own political protection. He said Democrats demanded $1.5 trillion in new spending for a seven-week stopgap measure, including $500 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and restored benefits for illegal immigrants that were eliminated in the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“They want to take hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and they want to give new benefits to illegal aliens,” Johnson said. “We eliminated that in our Big, Beautiful Bill. They want to bring it back. They want to prop up NPR and PBS. They want $500 million.”
Rep. Dusty Johnson called it “the stupidest shutdown” and said Schumer would own it “lock, stock, and barrel.”
“There is not a single partisan poison pill. There’s nothing that would trip anybody up,” Johnson told Breitbart News. “We’re just going to hit pause for six weeks so that we can negotiate while the government is open rather than negotiate while the government is closed. Apparently, that is asking too much of Chuck Schumer.”
Democratic votes are needed to reach the 60-vote threshold required to pass spending bills in the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats. Schumer is being pressured against compromise from the socialist left after Democrats voted with Republicans on a clean continuing resolution in March, Johnson said.
“It blew up Chuck Schumer’s political world,” Johnson said. “The angry, liberal left thought Schumer did not fight hard enough, so the one thing that he doesn’t want to do this time is roll over.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Democrats are “afraid of their base.”
“Rank-and-file Democrats are getting nervous and Sen. Schumer is too. The far left has painted them into an unsustainable corner, and they know it. Hopefully, Sen. Schumer sees the light and listens to the same voice that walked him and his colleagues away from a shutdown in March,” Thune said.
Thune accused Democrats of “hostage taking” and urged them to “release the hostage,” saying Obamacare tax credits could be negotiated at the end of the year when they are set to expire.
“Democrats can either vote for a clean, short-term, nonpartisan CR that prioritizes the American people, or they can choose a completely avoidable shutdown,” Thune said.
Democrats are demanding about $1 trillion in health care spending to extend Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, as well as a reverse of Medicaid cuts from earlier tax legislation. They claim 15 million people could lose health coverage and 24 million could see premiums increase by 75 percent. Democrats also want Republicans to release previously approved federal funding the White House has unilaterally sought to cancel.
Schumer said “very large differences” remained on health care after the Monday meeting.
“The American people are hurting in their health care,” Schumer said. “We’re seeing people not being able to get the health care they need, and the American people are crying out for some help. It is our job as legislative leaders to try and solve this problem.”
Schumer told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that a deal could be reached, but said Republicans are unwilling to negotiate.
“You don’t do this by one party putting together a completely partisan bill and saying take it or leave it,” Schumer said.
Republican leaders said they would vote against Tuesday in the Senate on the House-passed legislation to pass a budget deal, daring Democrats to block it hours before the shutdown deadline.
“If the Democrats make the decision to shut the government down, the consequences are on them,” Johnson said. “And I think it’s absolutely tragic.”
Trump canceled a planned meeting with Democratic leaders last week, calling their demands “unserious and ridiculous.” On Monday evening, Trump shared an AI-generated video on Truth Social mocking Schumer and Jeffries.
A White House Office of Management and Budget letter told federal agencies to “use this opportunity to consider reduction in force” if the government shuts down.