He's not wrong. A shutdown mandates sending employees home, & gives great discretion over who to send home. It also would've hobbled the courts, where Trump was routinely losing. Schumer got dealt a shit hand. Voters put him in that situation by re-electing Trump, & electing GOP Cong. majorities.

A shutdown would have done that temporarily. The Continuing Resolution that Chuck Schumer secretly voted for, telling nobody beforehand and blindsiding his entire party, allowed Rs in Congress to gut government for a GENERATION. It was a stunning lapse of leadership, as even Pelosi said at the time.

When would the shutdown have ended? What date?

After the 2026 midterms - during which time mandatory programs would remain in effect. A chunk of those mandatory programs have now been defunded and scrapped. A shutdown into 2026 would have been preferable. Why else do you think every Democrat that’s actually on Appropriations was against the CR?

(Incidentally - 2026 is the far limit but it’s not likely. People on Appropriations - Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray specifically - were in talks with Republican colleagues for a more limited resolution with some negotiated compromises. Schumer ignored them and torched their efforts. He’s no leader.)

Who decides what's "mandatory"? Do you think denying those programs funding during a shutdown would have, somehow, kept them open? What are you trying to say here? The CR kept funding at the status quo ante level. Anything that got defunded wasn't bc of the CR.

What you’re saying is that the Dems on Appropriations who were negotiating different deals are idiots who don’t know what they’re doing. And - sure, maybe you’re right. But: why did the literal leader of the Senate Dems flatly refuse to just talk to them? Why breeze past them and vote with the Rs?

No, you're putting words in my mouth. It's possible for them to have different considerations. That doesn't make one group of them idiots. It's also possible that new info came to light & that plans needed to change. Idk. You'd have to ask him.

You’re right, sorry; looking back, you were responding to my claim that a shutdown into 2026 would be preferable, not the alternate negotiations. Presently I’m just very worried the NY Dem caucus - Dem leadership in other words - will hand the Republicans a midterm victory the way they did in 2022.

"A shutdown would give them more people, so we decided to cut out the middle man and just hand it over."