OPINION:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent out a mocking, snarky, sneering message President Donald Trump’s way over the budget bill showdown — the showdown that wasn’t, really — telling the White House chief he shouldn’t be talking up a government shutdown.
“You can’t always get what you want,” he said, from the Senate floor, a la the Rolling Stones hit.
Schumer’s message came as Trump on Twitter issued an explanation of sorts for the failure of Republicans to stand tall during budget negotiations. The bill rubber-stamped by Republican leadership contains plenty of funding for Planned Parenthood and other Democrat-liked domestic programs, but nothing that will build a border wall.
“The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We …” Trump tweeted, and then continued, “either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good ’shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”
The shutdown is something Republicans wanted to avoid — obviously. Why else would they cave without fight to Democrats.
But now Schumer’s mocking?
“I was deeply disappointed,” Schumer said, of Trump’s messaging. “Here we saw Democrats and Republicans working together in the best traditions of the Senate, and the president disparages in a way that’s destructive, essentially saying let’s have a shutdown.”
Well, wrong on that — Democrats and Republicans didn’t work together. Democrats demanded, Republicans cowered and voila, a budget bill was born.
And Trump’s response?
Probably the sanest one for a true Republican to make. Allowing the government to shut down might just be the trick to get the Republicans to find some boldness, recoup, and go back for the next budget discussions armed with something more lethal than cupcakes.
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