Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is getting a lot of heat for voting in favor of the continuing resolution and backing up Republicans to keep the federal government open.
Yet I'm not sure what else he could have done under the circumstances. For starters, he simply didn't have the vote among Democrats to shut down the government. But even if he had the votes and they shut down the government, it has not been made clear what demands they would have made to reopen government much less how long they would be prepared to keep it closed.
The argument is that by keeping the federal government open, DOGE could continue to take a chainsaw to it. But as Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (who voted against the CR and in favor of shutting down the government) pointed out, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would have been able to continue DOGE's mission.
This isn't to say that the anger against Schumer is without legitimacy. He had initially signaled that Senate Democrats wouldn't support the CR and then made an about face. Given those circumstances, I can understand why progressive groups want Schumer to step down as Senate Minority leader.
Yet let us suppose that Schumer does step down. It remains to be seen how his successor could have voted any differently. Even with the hatchet job the Trump Administration is doing to the federal government, shutting it down should be the last resort, not the first. Let's keep in mind that every time Republicans initiated a government shutdown, it backfired against them. At this point, I'm not convinced Democrats forcing a government shutdown would benefit them much less the rest of us.
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