Opinion
Guest Essay
Chuck
Schumer: Trump and Musk Would Love a Shutdown. We Must Not Give Them One.
March 13,
2025
By Chuck
Schumer
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/opinion/trump-musk-shutdown-senate.html
Mr. Schumer,
Democrat of New York, is the Senate minority leader.
Over the
past two months, the United States has confronted a bitter truth: The federal
government has been taken over by a nihilist.
President
Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon.
Most Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have caved to his every whim. The
Grand Old Party has devolved into a crowd of Trump sycophants and MAGA radicals
who seem to want to burn everything to the ground.
Now,
Republicans’ nihilism has brought us to a new brink of disaster: Unless
Congress acts, the federal government will shut down Friday at midnight.
As I have
said many times, there are no winners in a government shutdown. But there are
certainly victims: the most vulnerable Americans, those who rely on federal
programs to feed their families, get medical care and stay financially afloat.
Communities that depend on government services to function will suffer.
This week
Democrats offered a way out: Fund the government for another month to give
appropriators more time to do their jobs. Republicans rejected this proposal.
Why? Because
Mr. Trump doesn’t want the appropriators to do their job. He wants full control
over government spending.
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He isn’t the
first president to want this, but he may be the first president since Andrew
Jackson to successfully cow his party into submission. That leads Democrats to
a difficult decision: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Mr. Trump
throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.
This, in my
view, is no choice at all.
For sure,
the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t
address this country’s needs. But even if the White House says differently, Mr.
Trump and Elon Musk want a shutdown. We should not give them one. The risk of
allowing the president to take even more power via a government shutdown is a
much worse path.
To be clear:
No one on my side of the aisle wants a government shutdown. Members who support
this continuing resolution do not want that. Members who oppose it do not want
that.
Members who
oppose this resolution want the Republicans to take their responsibilities more
seriously and to negotiate spending bills that will address the many needs of
the American people.
I respect my
fellow Democrats for that. Unfortunately, this Republican Party is the party of
Trump.
As bad as
passing the continuing resolution would be, I believe a government shutdown is
far worse.
First, a
shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital
government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.
Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have wide-ranging authority to
deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff
members with no promise they would ever be rehired.
The
decisions about what is essential would, in practice, be largely up to the
executive branch, with few left at agencies to check it.
Mr. Musk has
reportedly said that he wants a shutdown and may already be planning how to use
one to his advantage.
Second, if
we enter a shutdown, congressional Republicans could weaponize their majorities
to cherry-pick which parts of government to reopen.
In a
protracted shutdown, House and Senate Republicans could bring bills to the
floor to reopen only their favored departments and agencies while leaving other
vital services that they don’t like to languish.
Third,
shutdowns mean real pain for American families.
For example,
a shutdown could cause regional Veterans Affairs offices to reduce even more of
their staffs, further delay benefits processing and curtail mental health
services — abandoning veterans who earned, and depend on, those resources.
A shutdown
could continue to slash the administrative staffs at Social Security offices —
delaying applications and benefit adjustments and forcing seniors to wait even
longer for their benefits.
A shutdown
could further stall federal court cases and furlough critical staff members —
denying victims and defendants alike their day in court, dragging out appeals
and clogging the justice system for months or years.
Finally, a
shutdown would be the best distraction Donald Trump could ask for from his
awful agenda.
Right now,
Mr. Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock
market. He owns the damage happening to our economy. The stock market is
falling, and consumer confidence is plummeting.
In a
shutdown, we would be busy fighting with Republicans over which agencies to
reopen and which to keep closed instead of debating the damage Mr. Trump’s
agenda is causing.
I believe it
is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the
American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open.
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