Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., contended that their position now is completely counter to the one they held in March when the government was again on the brink of closure, especially given their concerns that the Trump administration and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would move ahead with mass firings.
"The argument they made was that you don't want to give Trump — basically by shutting the government down — carte blanche to do whatever he wants to do with these government agencies, and, you know, to let the OMB make decisions about who's essential and who isn't," Thune said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show."
"Because they do fundamentally believe they are the government party," he continued. "Which is why I think it's going to be hard, can be really hard for them to sustain this over a long period of time, but we'll see."
The OMB circulated a memo to federal agencies this week that directed mass firings of federal employees beyond the typical shutdown furloughs, but Schumer chalked it up to "an attempt at intimidation."
"Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare," he said. "This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today."
SENATE PROGRESSIVE ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘MAFIA-STYLE BLACKMAIL’ IN SHUTDOWN FIGHT
President Donald Trump during a bilateral meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday, April 7, 2025 (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He said that if Democrats are concerned about the changes brought on by the Trump administration, shutting the government down is not the right answer.
"We must keep our government open," Fetterman said. "If we shut our government down, you know, the kinds of chaos and the kinds of loss for the millions of Americans that count on that directly, it's just not the appropriate time for that, especially after the [Charlie] Kirk assassination."
Schumer and congressional Democrats offered a counter-proposal to the GOP’s CR that included a laundry list of demands, such as permanently extending Obamacare subsidies, repealing the healthcare title of Trump’s "big, beautiful bill," and clawing back billions of canceled funding for NPR and PBS.
Both the Republican and Democrat proposals failed in the Senate last week.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., like the majority of his Democratic colleagues, was rooted in opposition to the GOP’s short-term extension because of its lack of language to address Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of this year.
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When asked if he was concerned that shutting the government down would give Trump free rein to do as he pleased, Blumenthal told Fox News Digital, "I think Republicans would insist that he follow the law."
Thune has signaled that conversations about the Obamacare subsidies, in particular, could happen after a shutdown is averted, but it so far has not been enough for Senate Democrats.
"I mean, they passed 13 short-term resolutions during the Biden administration, and 96% of the Democrats voted for it," Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital. "And go check out their rhetoric. So now, all of a sudden, they can't vote for it. It's ridiculous."
When pressed on whether Republicans would move on Obamacare subsidies, Hoeven said, "I think we're gonna do something we haven't decided. So we're talking about a number of different things, but we're working on it."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/schumer-democrats-face-heat-shifting-stance-government-shutdown-threat