Senate Democrats Abandon Schumer as Government Shutdown Reaches 40 Days

After 40 days of government shutdown theater, reality finally set in for a group of Senate Democrats who broke ranks with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to advance Republican efforts to reopen the government. The facts are simple: Democrats held out for healthcare concessions they were never going to get, and they finally admitted it.

Eight Senate Democrats crossed the aisle on Sunday to provide Republicans with the votes needed to move forward on a modified continuing resolution. The defectors included Sens. Angus King, John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto, Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan, Jacky Rosen, Tim Kaine, and notably, the number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin.

Let us be clear about what happened here. Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, insisted for weeks that they would only vote to reopen the government in exchange for a concrete deal extending expiring Obamacare subsidies. They drew a line in the sand. They made demands. They held federal workers hostage to their healthcare agenda.

And then they got nothing.

The bipartisan package that emerged from negotiations contained no guaranteed extension of Obamacare subsidies. Democrats secured some minor victories, including reversals of certain furloughed worker terminations and guaranteed back pay. But on their central demand, the healthcare subsidies that Schumer claimed were non-negotiable, they received only a promise from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to hold a vote. Not a guarantee of passage. Not a commitment to support. Just a vote.

This is what political leverage looks like when it evaporates. Senator King inadvertently admitted as much when he stated, “The question was, does the shutdown further the goal of achieving some needed support for the extension of the tax credits? Our judgment was that it will not.”

Translation: We realized we were losing and had nothing to show for it.

The logic here is inescapable. Democrats believed they could use a government shutdown to force Republicans into accepting Obamacare subsidy extensions. After nearly six weeks, they discovered that Republicans were not going to budge. So Democrats had a choice: continue the shutdown indefinitely with no prospect of victory, or accept a face-saving compromise that gave them virtually nothing they originally demanded.

They chose the latter, which was the correct decision, but only after 40 days of unnecessary government dysfunction.

Schumer, predictably, attempted to salvage the narrative by attacking Republicans for rejecting a Democratic counter-proposal that would have extended subsidies for a year. He claimed Republicans demonstrated they are “against any healthcare reform” and declared the healthcare crisis too severe for him to support the continuing resolution.

This is political posturing divorced from reality. Republicans never promised to extend Obamacare subsidies as part of a shutdown resolution. Democrats created their own preconditions, failed to achieve them, and now Schumer is left explaining why his strategy collapsed.

The Democrats who broke with Schumer deserve credit for recognizing the obvious: their position was untenable. These senators, many of whom participated in bipartisan negotiations over recent weeks, understood that continuing the shutdown served no productive purpose.

The American people should remember this episode clearly. Democrats manufactured a crisis over Obamacare subsidies, prolonged a government shutdown for 40 days, and ultimately surrendered with almost nothing to show for their efforts except disruption to federal services and uncertainty for government workers.

This is what happens when political strategy collides with mathematical reality. Republicans held the line, and Democrats eventually had no choice but to fold.

Related: Ghislaine Maxwell Seeks Commutation While Allegedly Receiving Special Prison Treatment