'Music to Republicans’ ears': GOP strategy to force Dems on funding revealed

Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaking to reporters on February 11, 2025 (Joshua Sukoff/Shutterstock.com)

When it comes to their strategy in the fight with Democrats over government funding and another looming government shutdown, Republicans say just let Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) keep talking, reports The Hill.

“I think he’s disconnected from the reality of what’s happening on the ground in a lot of places,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), told The Hill.

“People don’t want dysfunction. They don’t want a government shutdown. They don’t want people taking a stand on stuff that doesn’t impact them or they don’t understand," she said.

“Yeah — it’s good for him to talk,” she added.

An anonymous Senate GOP aide agreed, telling The Hill, "Let Schumer be Schumer."

"That’s kind of one of our strategies," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) noted.

Schumer took enormous heat from his own party after voting for the GOP's yearlong spending stopgap, The Hill reports. In March, he broke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to back the “clean” continuing resolution.

"Republicans are more than willing to let Schumer’s words carry the day," The Hill says, describing it as "music to Republicans' ears."

“He is in the most precarious political position of everybody, and I’m not sure that he can survive it,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told The Hill.

“I do so see him as vulnerable and I think he sees himself as vulnerable, and I think it’s both paralyzing to him and ineffective in communicating," Cramer added.

Schumer, for his part, is trying to pressure Republicans to reach across the aisle.

“Donald Trump has told Republicans ‘don’t even bother.’ He said ‘don’t even bother’ negotiating with Democrats. And they have, unfortunately, dutifully obeyed,” Schumer said. “Democrats don’t want a shutdown. But Republicans cannot shut Democrats out of the process and pretend like the last nine months have been business as usual.”

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