Chuck Schumer: Trump and Musk Would Love a Shutdown. We Must Not Give Them One.

 

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.