WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats are reassessing their political strategy after the party caved in on itself over disagreements on whether to fight back against a Republican-led spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
After days of infighting and finger pointing, top Democrats in both the House and Senate spoke with each other over the weekend to discuss “a path forward,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday.
Jeffries, D-N.Y., even offered key support to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has been under fire by several members of his own party after voting to advance the GOP-led government funding bill last week.
When asked if Jeffries supports Schumer’s leadership in the Senate, the top House Democrat simply replied: “Yes, I do.”
The short statement marks a major turnaround for the two party leaders after Jeffries last week refused to answer that same question when asked multiple times in a press conference. Whenever Jeffries was pressed on the matter, he answered: “Next question.”
Schumer defends support for continuing resolution
Meanwhile, Schumer has defended his decision as being the lesser of two evils and has remained adamant he is the best leader for Senate Democrats, telling “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday he is “the best at winning Senate seats.”
“So I thought I did the thing a leader should do: Even when people don’t see the danger around the curve, my job was to alert people to it — and I knew I’d get some bullets,” Schumer said of his decision, which prompted so much backlash the Senate minority leader had to postpone a previously scheduled book tour this week due to planned protests.
Now, Schumer and Jeffries are moving forward with a plan to use President Donald Trump’s own agenda against him. A major part of that will be focusing on Republicans’ forthcoming tax reconciliation bill, which Democrats have warned would be used to cut benefits to crucial welfare programs such as Medicaid.
“It’s a scheme to jam these massive tax cuts down the throat of the American people for their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations who don’t need it,” Jeffries said at a press conference in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday. “And then they want to force working class Americans to pay the bill by robbing working class Americans of their health care.”
Jeffries outlined a number of ways Democrats are already digging in on these attacks, declaring Tuesday the “Medicaid Day of Action.” Democratic lawmakers across the country participated by hosting town hall meetings, press conferences, events with health care providers and Medicaid recipients, and more, Jeffries said.
Trump has vowed not to touch Medicaid or any other welfare program when it comes to spending cuts, but that may not be possible, according to recent budget estimates. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan agency that provides budget and economic information to Congress, published a report earlier this month concluding lawmakers would likely need to slash Medicaid funding to cover the lost tax revenue from extending the 2017 tax cuts.
By calling attention to those potential cuts to Medicaid, Schumer is hoping it will damage Trump’s popularity enough to give Democrats an edge with voters.
Schumer: ‘Relentless fighting’ will change view of Trump
“If we keep at it every day — relentless fighting and showing how they’re hurting people so badly — Trump’s numbers will get much lower, and his popularity, but also his effectiveness will decline,” Schumer, D-N.Y., told “CBS Mornings.” “I believe that strategy will work.”
The strategy comes at a crucial time for Democrats as they look to gain back power in Congress in next year’s midterm elections and hold some sort of leverage in the federal government.
But it also comes as the party’s favorability ratings sit at a record low, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS this week. Just 29% of Americans say they view the party favorably, which is a record low for the poll since it began surveying voters in 1992.
By comparison, the Republican Party currently holds a 36% favorability rating, the poll shows.
Among Democratic-aligned adults only, more than half (52%) say Democratic leadership is taking the party in the wrong direction, according to the poll. A major factor contributing to that number, which is lower than previous polling, is due to the party’s failure to coalesce around a single figure to serve as a counterpoint to Trump.
Roughly 6% named Jeffries as a leader who “best reflects the core values,” according to the poll. Only 2% said Schumer. The top choice among Democrats, with 10%, was New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.