In a very entertaining moment in the United States Senate on Saturday, November 8, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) clashed with Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) over the supposed Democrat plan to end the shutdown, with Moreno calling out Schumer for being untrustworthy and Schumer freaking out and storming off.
For reference, the federal government has been shut down since October 1, with Republicans alleging that the fault lies with Democrats for demanding nonsense like $1.5 trillion in new spending, with much of it to be spent on horrifying wastes of money like taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal aliens. Republicans have refused to go along with such demands and, as 60 votes are needed to pass anything, the government has stayed shut down.
That has put much of the onus on Democrats to find an end to the shutdown, as they are (mostly correctly) perceived as being in a position where they are putting Americans at risk and causing immense chaos on behalf of illegal aliens, to whom they want to give benefits that most Americans don’t receive.
Generally, the Democrats have been unbending in the fight, but, with SNAP left unfunded by the Trump Administration, have started to negotiate in better faith. Or, at least, they are trying to look more reasonable. Such was the basis of Schumer and Moreno’s fight on the Senate floor that led to Schumer storming out.
Schumer had claimed that the Democrats would be willing to reopen the government in exchange for a return to the Covid-era Obamacare subsidies. Framing the matter, he had said that it was “a simple proposal that would reopen the government and extend the ACA premium tax credits simultaneously. And then we have the opportunity to start negotiating longer-term solutions to health care costs.”
Sen. Moreno, noting that what Schumer wants is just a massive giveaway program that keeps Obamacare alive a bit longer at immense cost to the United States taxpayer, called out Schumer on the Senate floor by saying, “For one year, people making millions of dollars would still receive these COVID-era subsidies.”
And that came after Moreno had called out Schumer for being an untrustworthy negotiating partner, saying that Republicans would have to read in writing what the Democrats were suggesting. He said, “Is there a proposal in writing that we can read?” Schumer told him, “There is a proposal that is very simple…”
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In any case, after facing the question about millionaires, Schumer, rambling in response, insisted that those problems could be fixed later, and that Republicans should just vote for the massive giveaway program now despite it being a mess. He said, “The bottom line is, the senator from Ohio ignores that 99% of people…you want to hurt people making 10,000, 50,000, 90,000, and hold this up?”
He continued, “We can fix what the gentleman said in a negotiation, but don’t have people who are every day being hurt, hurt by paying 1000s of dollars more that they can’t afford. I know that the senator from Ohio cares about the billionaires. We care about average working people. I yield the floor.” He then stormed off in a huff.
Moreno, calling him out for the ridiculous plan and display, said, “So just to be clear, just to be Mr. President, it’s recognized. So just to be clear, what you heard from the minority leader was the following. I just want to recap it for those of whom I missed. Number one, he acknowledged that the Democrats have actually not put forward a written proposal that people could look at. Number two, he acknowledged that his plan would be to allow millionaires, let me just say that clearly people making millions of dollars would receive Biden-era, COVID Obamacare subsidies. You heard that, right?”
Concluding, he noted that Schumer “stormed out of the room” after getting pressed on the details of his nonsense plan, saying, “No income cap. I was going to ask him before he stormed out of the room because, evidently, he doesn’t want to hear any opposing views or actually engage in meaningful negotiation.”
Watch the incident here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video