Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said he is ready to risk a government shutdown at the end of September over health care provisions in the nation’s latest spending bill.
“It will get worse with or without it, because [President Donald] Trump is lawless,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview with The Associated Press this past week.
In a post on X, he added that “Republicans are raising health care prices through the roof,” while “Democrats are fighting to lower them.”
The Trump administration has called on Congress to pass a stopgap spending bill through January in order to avoid a government shutdown. A comprehensive spending plan for fiscal 2026 must be passed, or a continuing resolution approved, before Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown.
Schumer, along with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., are opposed to legislation that doesn’t include key health care provisions and a commitment not to roll them back.
They said the upcoming expiration of health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, as well as cuts to Medicaid and other government programs that Republicans made through Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” will negatively impact “millions” of people across the country.
“Millions of Americans will start getting letters in the mail telling them their health insurance costs are about to go through the roof,” Schumer wrote on X on Wednesday.
Schumer described it as Trump’s “big, ugly betrayal.”
“Donald Trump should call it the “Starve and Die” Act,” he also wrote. “That would be more accurate than big and beautiful.”
In his own social media post, Jeffries said Trump and House Republicans created a healthcare crisis in America.
“They have no interest in fixing it,” Jeffries wrote on X on Friday. “And that’s why Republicans are determined to shut the government down.”
Federal agencies must stop actions that are non-essential during a shutdown, and federal employees, including members of the military, would not receive paychecks.
In March, Schumer voted with Republicans to keep the government open. Now, he said the country is in a different place than it was earlier this year, when he vigorously argued against a shutdown.
He said he believes Republicans and Trump will be held responsible if they don’t negotiate a bipartisan deal.
“Things have changed” since the March vote, Schumer told The AP.
Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Have a news tip? Contact Jessica Botelho at jabotelho@sbgtv.com or at x.com/J_Botelho_TND. Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.
