WASHINGTON – With a government shutdown looming at the end of the month, Democratic leaders Saturday demanded a meeting with President Trump in hopes of striking a budget deal.
And if the president doesn’t agree to meet, the shutdown will be his fault, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told The Buffalo News in an interview on Saturday.
“I truly believe that if Trump and Republicans continue down this path, it will be the Trump health care shutdown,” Schumer said.
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, requested the meeting in a letter to Trump.
“We write to demand a meeting in connection with your decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the healthcare of the American people,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote.
The Trump White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Schumer spoke a day after the Republican-led Senate fell short of getting the 60 votes needed for a stopgap bill that would have funded the government through Nov. 21. That bill failed because Republicans control only 53 Senate seats and Democrats refused to support the measure.
The Senate also rejected the Democrats’ alternative spending bill, which would have permanently extended Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year while repealing cuts to Medicaid included in Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“We need to meet the moment and lower costs for people to stop the chaos that Trump has created,” Schumer said in the interview. “And it’s nowhere more visible and nowhere in America is there greater need than in Buffalo.”
Citing figures originally released by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Schumer said that if those Obamacare tax credits are allowed to expire, a Western New York couple receiving health care through that program could see costs go up 38%, or $3,204 annually.
In addition, Schumer noted that Western New York health care providers and insurers are already cutting back in anticipation of the soon-to-disappear health care subsidies and Medicaid cuts. For example, Kaleida Health is closing its surgery center in Amherst and its Buffalo therapy clinics, and Independent Health is cutting nearly 60 jobs.
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Schumer said in the interview that Trump and Republican congressional leaders have thus far refused to negotiate with Democrats on the budget bill, even though the Senate filibuster rules essentially mandate that any such measure get 60 votes.
“Trump actually publicly said to Republicans: don’t even bother to deal with Democrats,” Schumer said. He added that while House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune may well want to negotiate, “they’re afraid of Trump.”
In the interview, Schumer cited several reasons why Democrats are willing to let a shutdown happen on Sept. 30 when only six months ago, he and a handful of Democratic senators voted to allow another Republican spending bill to become law.
“First, six months ago, we didn’t know how bad Trump’s policies would be, particularly on health care,” Schumer said.
That budget measure passed long before Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and its Medicaid cuts were even proposed.
Schumer also noted that the Trump administration undercut what Congress intended with that budget measure when it rescinded funding for some programs and impounded funding for others. Democrats are now demanding a provision in the next spending bill that would prevent the Trump administration from unilaterally cutting funding without congressional approval.
Thirdly, “the public is much more tired of Trump, and his popularity has declined a lot,” Schumer said. Indeed, the RealClearPolitics polling average shows that while a narrow plurality of voters approved of Trump’s job performance back in early March, 52.6% of voters now disapprove of his performance.
That being the case, Schumer said Democrats believe they can win the battle for public sentiment during the looming shutdown. He said polling data shows Democrats with an edge on the issue: for example, a Data for Progress poll last week found that while 34% of voters would blame Democrats for the shutdown, 59% would blame either Trump or his Republican congressional allies.
Schumer endured withering public criticism after the March budget deal. A Data for Progress poll at the time showed that by a more than 3-to-1 margin, the top Senate Democrat wasn’t doing enough to fight back against Trump.
And that impression may have done lasting political damage to the 74-year-old Schumer, who is serving his fifth six-year term and who is up for re-election in 2028. A Siena College poll from August found that Schumer had his lowest public approval rating ever, with only 38% of New Yorkers polls saying they approve of his performance.
Asked about his falling approval rating, Schumer said: “Look: I’ve been in politics a while. You do the right thing and it always works out.”
And for now, the right thing for Schumer is to get tough with Trump. In fact, the last line of the letter he and Jeffries sent to Trump mimicked and therefore mocked one of the president’s favorite phrases.
“We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the health care and quality of life of the American people,” the letter said. “Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.”
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Jerry Zremski
Washington bureau
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