Chuck Schumer said, “We’ll set up an appointment with him, anytime, anyplace.” Take him up on that offer today and the issue will be settled.
Mr. President, schedule a meeting for 5:00 pm today, October 23, 2025. Include in that meeting Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Include one simple provision in the scheduled meeting. The government must be open for business.
At 3:00 pm today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune schedule a vote on the no-strings attached continuing resolution. A YES vote sends the bill for the President to sign and keeps the meeting on schedule. A NO vote cancels the meeting.
Schumer gets his meeting, and the American people get their government back. It is a win-win for everyone.
Yesterday, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats rejected two compromise proposals from Republicans to open the government.
One was to guarantee a vote by a set date on an extension of Obamacare credits. This is what Democrats have been railing for.
Here was a deal offered up on a silver platter. Republicans would debate it and bring it up for a vote. There is no guarantee that what the Democrats want will pass, but there was a guarantee that they would get a vote.
Some Republicans, including the Georgia firebrand, Marjorie Taylor Greene, have expressed concerns about the anticipated rate increases in Obamacare when the credits expire at the end of the year. They may have her on their side. By the way, the expiration date for the credits was set by the Democrats when they adopted the credits during the Covid crisis.
The point here is that Democrats might get something out of the deal. There is no way to know until they open it up and debate it. But Schumer rejected the proposal.
Majority leader, John Thune, had a pointed response published by MSNBC. He reportedly said, “At some point, Democrats have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
A second compromise was to peel off appropriations for the War Department and pass that spending bill. This would assure that military and War Department personnel would get paid. Schumer rejected that offer as well.
There are no strings attached to the Republican bill. It simply authorizes the continued operation of the government at the current level through November 21. During this time, the House and the Senate would act on appropriation bills to fully fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2026.
Even though Republicans hold a slim majority in the Senate, they need 60 votes to end debate and vote on the simple, no-strings, continuing resolution that the House has already passed. They only have 55 votes right now with three of those votes being Democrats. They need five more Democrats to side with them but that is not happening.
Democrats say that Republicans are unwilling to discuss the many issues involved with the budget. Republicans are more than happy to debate and do what the Democrats say they do not want to do.
What they will not do is to hold up government operations and services to Americans while they debate. Republicans have a simple clean, continuing resolution on the table.
Republicans have compromised with two offers. Republicans want to open the government, keep providing the services to Americans and debate the points of contention with the Democrats.
Democrats reject both compromise offers. As Majority Leader Thune says, “At some point, Democrats have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
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