Dems ‘sacrificed the American people,’ Thune says as government barrels toward midnight shutdown

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., railed against Senate Democrats’ move to block the GOP’s short-term funding extension as Congress gears up for a government shutdown.

Democratic lawmakers led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted to block Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) for a second time just hours ahead of the deadline to fund the government.

It’s unlikely that a deal will be struck in the waning hours of fiscal year (FY) 2025, and neither side is ready to blink.

Thune said there would be more votes to come on the same bill but noted that if Schumer wanted to talk, he knows where to find him. He also said there are Democrats who “are very unhappy with the situation that they are in.”

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“We didn’t ask Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies. We didn’t add partisan riders,” Thune said. “We simply asked Democrats to extend existing funding levels to allow the Senate to continue the bipartisan appropriations work that we started.”

“And Senate Democrats said no,” he continued. “Why? Because far left interest groups and far left Democrat members wanted a showdown with the president. And so, Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats’ partisan interests.”

Republicans tried and failed to again advance their CR, which would have extended government funding until Nov. 21 with the main goal of giving lawmakers more time to pass the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the 1990s.

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Despite an impending shutdown, Thune and Senate Republicans found a bright spot in the failed vote: more Democrats crossed the aisle than the previous test earlier this month.

“The cracks in the Democrats are already showing,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said. “When we had a vote on our proposal to keep the government open, the clean CR right before the recess, we had one Democrat vote. Tonight we had three.”

Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, all crossed the aisle to support the bill.

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Meanwhile, Schumer signaled that he was not ready to budge from his position and instead pointed the finger at the GOP and President Donald Trump for “plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill, and risking America’s health care.”

Senate Democrats pushed for an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits, among other things, that Republicans argued were not provisions that should be tacked onto a short-term funding extension. 

Still, Schumer was resolute that Thune and the GOP needed to come to the negotiating table to solve that issue and craft a bipartisan CR.

“We hope they sit down with us and talk. Otherwise, it’s the Republicans who will be driving us straight towards a shutdown tonight, and at midnight,” Schumer said. “And the American people will blame them for bringing the federal government to a halt.”