'They've got to fight back': Democrats press leaders not to cave in a shutdown fight Jonathan AllenSeptember 26, 2025 at 6:08 AM 0 WASHINGTON — With a looming government funding deadline, the biggest sin in the eyes of the party's base, according to Democratic officials and activists, would not be l...
- - 'They've got to fight back': Democrats press leaders not to cave in a shutdown fight
Jonathan AllenSeptember 26, 2025 at 6:08 AM
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WASHINGTON — With a looming government funding deadline, the biggest sin in the eyes of the party's base, according to Democratic officials and activists, would not be losing to President Donald Trump in a shutdown battle. It would be refusing to fight.
"They're desperate to see from Democrats some sign that they understand how serious, how damaging, how dangerous things are and have gotten, and they're prepared to use the tools and the leverage they've got to fight back," said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive grassroots group that has thousands of chapters nationwide.
In March, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to use that leverage — the Democratic minority's ability to block legislation with a filibuster — and allowed a Republican-written government funding measure to become law.
Now, Schumer promises this time will be different.
And with federal agencies set to run out of money at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the Democratic base is putting more pressure on him to either win concessions from Trump — at a minimum, an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that limit the costs of health insurance for millions of Americans — or let a shutdown happen.
Trump has refused to negotiate with Democratic leaders, and his budget director, Russ Vought, threatened this week to fire thousands of federal workers if Democrats don't accept a GOP-written bill that would fund the government into November.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has declined to negotiate with Democrats on a stopgap bill, saying the House measure simply buys time for appropriators to reach a deal.
It takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass a funding bill; Republicans control 53 seats. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is the only Democrat who supported the GOP's short-term legislation.
"[A]gencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities" that are funded by annual appropriations but are not "consistent with the president's priorities," Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a memo to senior administration officials.
The move raised the stakes of a shutdown for Democratic lawmakers, many of whom are advocates for the federal workforce. Trump is already pointing his finger at Democrats, who would need to provide a handful of votes in the Senate for any funding bill to make it to his desk.
"This is all caused by the Democrats. They asked us to do something unreasonable," Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office. "This is what Schumer wants. This is what Democrats want."But most Democrats are convinced voters will blame Trump and congressional Republicans if the government shuts down, health insurance premiums rise and fewer federal services are available.
"We will not be intimidated by Russ Vought, who's completely and totally out of control," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday. "All he's done is send a message to voters in Virginia and across the country that Republicans are determined to hurt the American people. Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency. If the government shuts down, it's because they want the government to shut down."
"Our response to Russ Vought is simple: Get lost," he said.
The Republican-led House passed legislation last week that would keep the government funded through Nov. 21 — while allowing the ACA subsidies to lapse — and then left town until next week. That puts the onus on the Senate to pass the bill for the president's signature, send its own version back to the House or simply let a shutdown happen.
"I think Senate Republicans are making a mistake ignoring Americans' pain that they're feeling from costs being too high," said JB Poersch, president of Senate Majority PAC, which raises money for Senate Democrats. "And all the legislative gobbledygook is not going to get away from people wanting to see real action and bringing health care costs down. They're doing everything they can to avoid this conversation, and that includes Trump not being in the room."
For Democratic leaders, the shutdown standoff marks their biggest test yet in the second Trump administration: Can they use the limited power they have to force the Republican trifecta to address some of their policy goals? Polls show a growing number of Democratic voters are disenchanted with their party and want them to show a more confrontational — and less compromising — posture toward Trump.
What's less clear is what it would actually take for Democrats to agree to extend government funding. Jeffries sidestepped when asked by NBC News Wednesday whether attaching an extension of Obamacare funding would be sufficient. Democrats also want Republicans to reverse cuts to Medicaid that were enacted as part of a budget bill Trump signed into law earlier this year.
"We have to have a conversation with Republicans in order to work toward decisively resolving the health care crisis that they created," Jeffries said, while adding that Democrats won't simply accept assurances of votes in the future. "Any agreement related to protecting the health care of the American people has to be ironclad and in legislation."
Democrats are wary of making any deal with Republicans because Vought and the Trump administration maintain that the president has the right to overrule Congress and refuse to spend on programs he doesn't like — a view that contradicts the 1974 Impoundment Control Act and is under consideration by the Supreme Court. Beyond that, Trump and congressional Republicans have used the legislative process to rescind previously appropriated money from programs.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has called on Democrats to revise their playbook against Trump as he uses "authoritarian" tactics and withholds spending directed by Congress. He said there can be no spending deal if Trump can disregard the parts he dislikes.
"I have an obligation to make sure that my vote actually ends up in a budget being implemented rather than ignored," Murphy told NBC News.
Schumer's calculus may be more complicated than just taking the temperatures of his own Senate Democratic colleagues. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who is believed to have higher ambitions, said in a recent interview with NBC News that Democrats should not agree to a budget bill unless they can extract significant concessions from Trump, possibly including the ACA and Medicaid funding, as well as a restoration of spending for the government's main food subsidy program.
"We have a responsibility, I think, to really set a high price so that we can protect people," Ocasio-Cortez said. "This is not about them cooperating with us. This is about them governing, and if they can't govern, that's on them."
Zach Wahls, a state senator who is running in a crowded primary for a competitive House district in Iowa, is similarly pressing Democrats in Washington to bring back policy wins.
"Democratic leaders need to stand for something and use their leverage to help hard-working Iowa families," Wahls said. "Our farmers and our state are getting crushed, health insurance premiums are about to spike, and everything is unaffordable."
But the ambiguity over what Democrats would accept in exchange for providing enough votes to keep the government funded makes it more difficult to gauge whether a deal could be struck. For now, neither party seems interested in moving closer to an agreement.
A Democratic strategist involved in House and Senate races said while rank-and-file Democrats may not be specifically tuned into Washington's budget showdown, they want to see pushback to Trump. And, at this moment, leadership has to step up and demonstrate "we're not just going to give you the votes to do more cuts and more harm."
"Democrats have to be disciplined and so far they have been," the strategist said. Hill Democrats are saying, "Sit down, meet with us, meet us in the middle on health care."
And, the person added, that such a fight will only underscore what Democrats believe is Trump's biggest weaknesses right now: the economy, and how he has failed to live up to campaign promises to improve people's lives.
What is consistent among Democrats at the grassroots level is the sense that their representatives in Washington have been too meek in resisting Trump's agenda.
"There's no question that wherever we go, we hear voters and party leaders saying we want our folks in D.C. fighting and pushing back on Republicans," said Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Democratic Party in Nebraska, where the parties are gearing up for a slugfest over the 2nd District swing seat being left open by retiring Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican.
That helps explain why Democratic voters are watching how their leaders fight as much as the outcome.
"Voters don't reward weak leaders," said Democratic strategist Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a former senior Senate aide.
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