{"id":13334,"date":"2025-09-16T16:16:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-mocks-schumers-shutdown-stance-he-knows-where-my-office-is\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T16:16:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:16:44","slug":"thune-mocks-schumers-shutdown-stance-he-knows-where-my-office-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-mocks-schumers-shutdown-stance-he-knows-where-my-office-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Thune mocks Schumer\u2019s shutdown stance: He \u2018knows where my office is\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> responded tartly to his Democratic counterpart\u2019s calls for \u201cbipartisan negotiations\u201d ahead of an approaching government shutdown deadline Tuesday, underscoring the posturing that has marked the process thus far.<\/p>\n

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> \u201cknows where my office is,\u201d Thune told reporters. \u201cWhy do you guys keep asking me this?\u201d He later added during a floor speech that Schumer \u201cknows my number. I haven\u2019t heard from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a direct retort to Schumer\u2019s repeated calls for a \u201cnegotiation\u201d ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> have sent letters to Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> requesting a bipartisan meeting but haven\u2019t gotten a response.<\/p>\n

Thune told reporters he was \u201chappy\u201d to meet with Schumer though he questioned the \u201creason\u201d for a meeting since Republicans are planning to proceed with a \u201cclean\u201d short-term stopgap bill<\/a> that would largely maintain current government funding levels into late November without major policy add-ons.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s the first time since March that Thune has acknowledged a willingness to meet with Schumer on funding.<\/p>\n

Democrats have warned that if Republicans do not include them in negotiations about funding the government that they will bear the blame for a shutdown come Oct. 1. Trump indicated in a Fox News interview last week that he believed Republicans didn\u2019t need Democratic votes, but in the Senate it will take at least seven of them to help advance a stopgap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he says out loud that he says he doesn\u2019t need or want our votes, that means Donald Trump wants a shutdown,\u201d Schumer said Tuesday, adding that Thune and Johnson are \u201cdoing exactly what Donald Trump wants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have refused even to sit down at the table … despite repeated requests,\u201d Schumer added.<\/p>\n

Schumer, in particular, is under pressure to stand up to Republicans after agreeing to advance a GOP-written continuing resolution back in March. GOP leaders are eager to run the same play again this month and test his resolve.<\/p>\n

Inside a House GOP conference meeting Monday, influential conservative Rep. Jim Jordan<\/a> (R-Ohio) stood up to back the clean-CR plan, reminding his colleagues of Schumer\u2019s recent comments opposing it.<\/p>\n

So \u201csend Chuck Schumer a clean CR,\u201d Johnson told them.<\/p>\n

Schumer hasn\u2019t outlined a specific policy proposal that Democrats need to see attached to any stopgap in exchange for their votes, but he has said in general terms that health care needs to be addressed. Democrats have made expiring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies a key area of focus.<\/p>\n

Thune, however, reiterated Tuesday that the subsidies, which lapse Jan. 1, won\u2019t be attached to the stopgap bill and that there\u2019s \u201cnothing close to ready to go\u201d that could be finished by the end-of-the-month deadline.<\/p>\n

“I think the ACA subsidies will be an issue that will be addressed, but I think right now we’ve got to keep the government open so we can do appropriations bills,\u201d Thune said, adding that he believes there’s a \u201cpath\u201d to keeping the government open and having a conversation on the subsidies.<\/p>\n

Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> told reporters much the same Tuesday, saying \u201cthere are some Democrats pining for a shutdown\u201d and that there was \u201czero chance\u201d that Republicans would heed another emerging Democratic demand: unwinding the Medicaid cuts included in the GOP megabill passed this summer.<\/p>\n

Schumer indirectly responded to Republicans wanting to punt the discussion of an ACA subsidies extension, saying at a health care event Tuesday that “we don’t put any faith\u201d in the GOP\u2019s willingness to deal with the issue later.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded tartly to his Democratic counterpart\u2019s calls for \u201cbipartisan negotiations\u201d ahead of an approaching government shutdown deadline Tuesday, underscoring the posturing that has marked the process thus far. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer \u201cknows where my office is,\u201d Thune told reporters. \u201cWhy do you guys keep asking me this?\u201d He later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}