President Trump deserves the blame for gridlock in Congress rather Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or any other lawmaker, according to the top Senate Democrat.
“The president is pointing fingers,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday. “He blames Mitch McConnell for obstruction. He blames the Democrats for obstruction. He’s the obstructionist-in-chief, because he can’t stick to a position.”
It was an unlikely defense of his Republican counterpart by Schumer, one of the more aggressive communicators in Congress. His remarks served as a response to Trump’s recent refusal to take blame for the lack of congressional progress on his agenda, which is strongly opposed by Democrats.
But, Schumer shifted the focus to particular bills where Democrats believed they had a policy victory in hand, only to have Trump change course.
“He can’t go forward when he thinks something is the right thing to do,” Schumer said. “And if he keeps backing off and changing on everything, his presidency will be an utter failure.”
Schumer rooted those complaints in two issues, the most recent involving Obamacare. Trump decided to stop providing constitutionally-questionable cost-sharing reduction payments for insurance companies that provide cheaper health care plans to low-income enrollees. Trump touted a bill drafted by Senate negotiators to provide stop-gap funding on Tuesday afternoon, then criticized the idea in a Tuesday evening speech.
“I continue to believe Congress must find a solution to the Obamacare mess instead of providing bailouts to insurance companies,” Trump said.
Schumer compared that change to Trump’s previous agreement to back legislation to give legal status to people brought into the country illegally as children, in exchange for border security. The deal was much-maligned by immigration hawks. The White House eventually released a demand for a series of hawkish immigration policies to be included in the bill.
“Who messed that one up?” Schumer said. “Not the Republicans in the House and Senate; not the Democrats in the House and Senate; but the president … the president trying to blame Congress when he is really to blame, on issue after issue, is not fair and not accurate.”
