Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, according to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is at the center of what he describes as a deliberate and cynical plan—one that has left the federal government paralyzed and millions of Americans paying the price.
Gingrich argues that Schumer’s true strategy behind the prolonged government shutdown is beginning to unravel, as more Americans recognize it as a calculated political maneuver rather than a policy standoff.
While Democrats and much of the mainstream media continue pushing the narrative that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are to blame, Gingrich contends that the facts tell a different story.
On September 19, House Republicans passed a clean budget resolution designed solely to keep the government running—without increasing spending or attaching controversial policy measures. The move, Gingrich notes, was standard practice, a continuation resolution intended to maintain funding while next year’s budget negotiations continued. There were no “poison pills,” no partisan tricks—just a straightforward plan to avoid disruption.
But according to Gingrich, Schumer saw an opening to turn a routine process into a political weapon. Rather than ensuring stability, the Senate Democratic leader seized the opportunity to leverage a shutdown for perceived political gain.
In an interview with Punchbowl News, Schumer reportedly acknowledged this strategy in strikingly candid terms:
“Even the threat of shutting things—‘We’re gonna close this, we’re gonna close that.’ It’s [reflecting] at least as negative on them as it is on us. I think more so on them,” Schumer said.
As federal programs stall, air traffic controllers and military personnel work without pay, and countless families face uncertainty, Schumer added, “Every day gets better for us.”
To Gingrich, such remarks underscore the depth of the political cynicism driving the Democratic approach. “They are choosing politics over the paychecks of the American working men and women who protect our nation,” said Republican Senate Whip John Barrasso, echoing Gingrich’s assessment. “This weakness defines today’s Democrat Party. They’re radical, extreme, dangerous, and out of touch.”
Even The Washington Post, not typically aligned with Republican talking points, described the Democrats’ handling of the situation as “a dangerous game.”
As Gingrich points out, while Americans read story after story about those suffering under the shutdown, it’s important to remember Schumer’s own words: “Every day gets better for us.”
In contrast, Gingrich argues, every day gets worse for the millions of Americans struggling as a result.
He also highlights what he views as a deeper irony: the very demands Democrats are holding the government hostage over are unpopular with the American public. Citing findings from America’s New Majority Project, Gingrich notes that a majority of Americans reject the Democrats’ approach to both government spending and health care policy.
According to the survey, only 13 percent of Americans support increasing government spending, while 45 percent favor spending less, and another 27 percent prefer maintaining current levels.
As Democratic leadership moves closer ideologically to progressives such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Gingrich argues that the party is increasingly disconnected from the broader electorate.
The same study found that Democrats’ opposition to Republican Medicaid reforms—such as work requirements for able-bodied adults—runs counter to overwhelming public sentiment. Seventy-eight percent of Americans support work or job training requirements for those receiving health care benefits, while 84 percent back efforts to prevent system abuse.
Additionally, by a margin of 63 percent to 23 percent, Americans oppose using tax dollars to fund health care for illegal immigrants—another issue where Gingrich says Democrats are “on the wrong side of public opinion.”
At a fundamental level, most Americans also see the need to control costs within government health programs. Yet Democrats, Gingrich contends, frame any spending reduction or reform effort as a “cut.” By contrast, 53 percent of Americans view cost-saving measures as responsible management, not deprivation, while 73 percent believe cutting waste and fraud could save hundreds of billions of dollars annually.
“Who wouldn’t want to save money that way?” Gingrich asks.
He concludes that it is time to reopen the government and end what he calls Schumer’s “cynical, cruel strategy.” The harm, he argues, is both real and intentional—inflicted for short-term political advantage over goals that the majority of Americans simply do not support.
The path forward, Gingrich insists, remains simple: the clean House budget resolution still sits in the Senate, ready to be passed within hours. Doing so would immediately restore funding and paychecks to federal workers.
“Schumer and the Democrats,” Gingrich writes, “are the only thing standing between federal workers and their paychecks—and between the American people and their government.”
He urges Democrats to end the political brinkmanship and return to governing.
“Congress and the President could open the government today,” he says. “The Democrats should abandon their cynical scheme and get back to work.”
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