Schumer: Will Shutdown Over Health Care09/12 06:07

   Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer weathered backlash from Democrats 
earlier this year when he voted with Republicans to keep the government open. 
But he's now willing to risk a shutdown at the end of the month if Republicans 
don't accede to Democratic demands.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer weathered backlash 
from Democrats earlier this year when he voted with Republicans to keep the 
government open. But he's now willing to risk a shutdown at the end of the 
month if Republicans don't accede to Democratic demands.

   Schumer says he and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries are united in 
opposing any legislation that doesn't include key health care provisions and a 
commitment not to roll them back. He argues that the country is in a different 
place than it was in March, when he vigorously argued against a shutdown, and 
he says he believes Republicans and President Donald Trump will be held 
responsible if they don't negotiate a bipartisan deal.

   "Things have changed" since the March vote, Schumer said in an interview 
with The Associated Press on Thursday. He said Republicans have since passed 
Trump's massive tax breaks and spending cuts legislation, which trimmed 
Medicaid and other government programs, and Democrats are now unified -- unlike 
in March, when he voted with Republicans and Jeffries voted against legislation 
to fund the government.

   A shutdown, Schumer said, wouldn't necessarily worsen an environment in 
which Trump is already challenging the authority of Congress. "It will get 
worse with or without it, because Trump is lawless," Schumer said.

   Schumer's threat comes as Republicans are considering a short-term stopgap 
spending measure to avoid a Sept. 30 shutdown and as Democrats face what most 
see as two tough choices if the parties can't negotiate a deal -- vote with 
Republicans to keep the government open or let it close indefinitely with no 
clear exit plan.

   It also comes amid worsening partisan tensions in the Senate, where 
negotiations between the two parties over the confirmation process broke down 
for a second time Thursday and Republicans are changing Senate rules to get 
around Democratic objections. Democrats are also fuming over the Trump 
administration's decision to unilaterally claw back $4.9 billion in 
congressionally approved foreign aid just as negotiations over the spending 
deadline were getting underway in late August.

   Republicans have said that Democrats clearly will be to blame if they don't 
vote to keep the government open, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, 
R-S.D., has repeatedly said that Schumer needs to come to them with a specific 
proposal on health care, including an extension of expanded government tax 
credits for many Americans who get their health insurance through the 
Affordable Care Act. Some Republicans are open to extending those credits 
before they expire at the end of the year.

   Less realistic is Democrats' demand that Republicans roll back Medicaid cuts 
enacted in their tax breaks and spending cuts legislation this summer, what 
Trump called his "big, beautiful bill."

   Schumer said Democrats also want Republicans to commit that the White House 
won't take back money they have negotiated and Congress has approved after 
Republicans pushed through a $9 billion cut requested by the White House in 
July and Trump blocked the additional foreign aid money in August. "How do you 
pass an appropriations bill and let them undo it down the road?" Schumer said.

   Schumer's move to support the spending legislation in March put him in the 
rare position of bucking his party's base. He said then that of two bad 
options, a partial government shutdown was worse because it would give Trump 
even more control to shut down agencies and there would be "no off-ramp" to get 
out of it. "I think people realize it's a tough choice," he said.

   He faced massive backlash from within the party after the vote, with some 
activists calling on him to resign. Jeffries temporarily distanced himself from 
his New York colleague, saying in a statement immediately after Schumer's vote 
that House Democrats "will not be complicit." The majority of Senate Democrats 
also voted against the plan.

   This time, though, Schumer is in lockstep with Jeffries and in messaging 
within his caucus. In Democrats' closed-door lunch Wednesday, he shared polling 
that he said suggested most Americans would blame Trump, not Democrats, for a 
shutdown.

   "I did what I thought was right" in March, Schumer said. "It's a different 
situation now than then."