audio version of the segment here > Schumer's Shutdown continues into week 3
Jay Weber Show transcript 10-14-25
I referenced this yesterday: how the democrats need to ‘prove’ that not having a massive federal government in operation ‘hurts’ the American people, and yet, today is day 14 of the shutdown and surveys prove that we, the people, are not really feeling the effects of this shutdown.
I say that with apologies to the federal workers in the audience who might be among those furloughed.
But -one of the big ‘flash points’ that Chuck Schumer and the democrats were planning on-
Hey-
When the shutdown was finally going to start to hurt people like the democrats want and need to occur- was going to be- tomorrow. Wednesday. When the first paychecks of our active service members were going to be missed.
But president trump and the pentagon found a way to keep paying our soldiers, anyway. They’re shifting money around meaning that these servicemen and women won’t be missing their pay period tomorrow.
This has the democrat insiders infuriated because- according to politico- the democrats are now wedged into a ‘shutdown vise’.
Yep. They are. And it’s their own doing.
And with the military paychecks issue being taken off the table...and with the trump white house gearing up to lay off even more federal workers- permanently- as the shutdown continues-
The democrat strategists are starting to realize that this is a government shutdown that no one is in a hurry to end.
Uh-oh.
It stung them even more that- entering week two of the shutdown today- it hasn’t even been the ‘top news story’ over the last three days. The triumphant peace accord in the middle east has been.
Their worst political enemy and the man they love to spit tacks at- Donald Trump- is currently on a multi-country ‘victory lap’ over the first middle eastern peace accord that might have a chance of working- given how 8 or 9 other Arab countries have signed onto it...and are praising it.
As I said yesterday: the optics are devastating for the democrats-
Trump is going about ‘fixing the country’ and ‘fixing the world’ as the democrats sit around whining and moaning about how they cannot manage to stop Trump.
From what? Fixing everything? Exactly.
And with the issue of military pay and the WIC program funding taken care of-at least for the time being- the democrats are finding themselves in a real pickle: they shut down government on the ‘party of smaller government’.
Pretty stupid.
And as of this moment there are no indications that either side of the aisle is interested in negotiations, or in reopening things.
Folks- Chuck Schumer agreed with the left-wing activists-that shutting down government was going to put trump and republicans in a pickle. It was supposed to harm and inconvenience all sorts of Americans-and make them angry. And with the help of the major media companies, they have- who would relentlessly message this shutdown as trump’s fault... The democrats were going to flip the power dynamic. They were going to have the upper hand again.
Except- no.That’s not what’s happening.
Sure, most of the surveys show a few more Americans are blaming trump for the shutdown than are blaming the democrats...but it’s only a few percentage points...
Meanwhile- other surveys show the American people aren’t feeling any pain or major inconvenience because of the shutdown. Most Americans-genuinely – might not even know it’s going on.
You’d be surprised at how many people simply ignore the news and current events. Trump and his team have -smartly- kept as much of government running as they can. 2/3 of it doesn’t shut down, anyway. Welfare and social security checks go out, anyway. The VA hospitals still operate, etc. But Trump has also kept the national parks open. People are just ‘on their own more than normal.
The Smithsonian museums are closed, which is a bummer for anyone who is in dc and wants to see them. But...in truth? Very little has changed for the average American because of this shutdown.
And that’s got to be quietly infuriating to Chuck Schumer and the dc democrats-even as they pretend that they are ‘winning this thing’...and even as they pretend that ‘the longer the shutdown goes on, the better it is for them’.
How?
How can that possibly be the case? Especially when trump’s budget team has come up with ‘tiered termination’ plans that are going to continue to be regularly rolled out- if Schumer and the democrats keep this window open that allows the executive branch to fire ‘even union employees’ easily. Hey, there’s no money and there’s no work. Those are two reasons a president can just start firing unionized federal employees....so... Yeah. Let’s keep doing it.
Schumer and Jefferies keep pretending they don’t care about terminations. They insist there are illegal fires and those people won’t really be fired and will get their jobs back...
Oh, okay.Thanks for gambling with our jobs, chuck and hakeem. Thanks for playing a legal hunch...with my life depending on it.
How much do you think these terminated employees really trust Schumer and Jefferies in this claim that they’ll get their jobs back when the shutdown is over and the legal wrangling is done?
Longtime listeners will know that-during past govt shutdowns- we on the right have said that ‘the worst nightmare for the democrats is if life goes on as normal and virtually no one even notices the government is allegedly shut down.’
Because then people start asking: how many of these agencies and efforts that have been shot down are necessary? And why don’t we just make their furlough permanent?
Well-this is the nightmare the democrats are starting to awaken to this week. They were apparently, really, really expecting this ‘missed paycheck’ for our military members was going to be some sort of catalyst that was going to squeeze trump and republicans and force our side to relent.
Instead, just a few days after the liberals who run the politico blog said ‘activists think this is going well for Schumer’
That’s a response to Mike Johnson outsmarting them and keeping the house closed again this week.With that chamber shuttered-there is no reason for democrat congressmen to be in Washington-and if they aren’t there, already-there’s no reason for taxpayers to be billed to fly them in.
And so- democrats haven’t had their troops in dc or close to New York- to help message this shutdown as a terrible thing and ‘all trump’s fault’.
This is Jefferies insisting they have got to do more of that-even if it’s on their own dime-and their own time.
I’m starting to see some conservative and republican pundits start to insist that John Thune needs to give chuck Schumer an ‘off-ramp’. Some reason to pretend the democrats have won something so Schumer and the dems can ‘save face’ and reopen things.
I reject that entirely: it was Schumer and those caucus members who insisted they were going to stupidly have a showdown over a seven-week continuing resolution. This was literally a bill that says, we will just keep funding government ‘as-is’ until we work out the next budget. And the dems stupidly refused...and continued to refuse...because they think they can force a showdown over making an insane level of covid-era Obamacare funding permanent.
Republicans aren’t going to allow it. And no, they should feel no need to give Schumer an off-ramp.
There’s a chance that both sides will endure some political harm because of it...but the democrats are the side that’s more likely to lose voters over it.
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