House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is defending Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) from liberals’ criticism in the wake of a bipartisan budget deal to reopen the government.
Jeffries emphasized that Schumer was not a party to the spending agreement that advanced on the Senate floor Sunday night, and he praised the Democratic leader for holding the line for more than a month.
“Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats over the last seven weeks have waged a valiant fight on behalf of the American people,” Jeffries told reporters Monday in the Capitol.
Some other Democrats have been much less complimentary. They’re furious that a group of Senate Democrats supported a Republican offer to reopen the government without a guarantee that expiring health care subsidies under ObamaCare will be extended.
Schumer might not have supported the deal, those voices say, but as party leader he bears responsibility for letting the rank-and-file senators abandon the cause.
“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote on X. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare premiums from skyrocketing for Americans, what will you fight for?”
For liberals, the animosity towards Schumer is rooted in an earlier fight over government spending, in March, when the Senate leader splintered from a vast majority of his party to support a Republican budget bill crafted without Democratic input.
This time around, Schumer reversed course and, along with Jeffries, became a leading voice of the Democratic opposition to the Republicans’ short-term spending bill. In countless public statements, the pair cited the urgency of addressing the expiring health care subsidies before millions of Americans get hit by skyrocketing costs next year.
Jeffries on Monday vowed that the fight will continue, even if a small number of Senate Democrats had ceded the party’s leverage.
“They’re going to have to explain themselves,” Jeffries said of those Democrats.
Jeffries also acknowledged that, because most Republicans oppose an extension of the ObamaCare tax credits, the problem might not be fixed before the higher rates kick in. Jeffries said that’s not the outcome he wants, but at least voters will know which party blocked a resolution.
“If it doesn’t happen — this week, next week, this month, next month — then it’s the fault of Donald Trump, House and Senate Republicans, who continue to make life more expensive for the American people,” Jeffries said.
