OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A wise rule of thumb when someone gives you something you want would be to act gracious and grateful, but that was not what Senate Majority Leader and New York Sen. Charles Schumer decided to do.
After Senate Minority Leader and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell acquiesced, and got ten other members of the Republican Party in the Senate to go along with him, to allow Democrat senators to raise the nation’s debt ceiling on their own Sen. Schumer decided to use the opportunity to gloat.
Not only did he gloat, but he used his speech on the day of the vote to cast aspersions at the Republican senators, blaming them for coming close to not allowing the debt ceiling to be raised, and now Sen. McConnell has vowed that it will not happen again.
“For the good of America’s families, for the good of our economy, Republicans must recognize in the future that they should approach fixing the debt limit in a bipartisan way,” the majority leader said. “We hope Republicans will join in enacting a long-term solution to the debt limit in December. We’re ready to work with them.”
“Yesterday, Senate Republicans finally realized that their obstruction was not going to work,” he said. “I thank, very much thank, my Democratic colleagues for our showing our unity in solving this Republican-manufactured crisis.”
“Today’s vote is proof positive that the debt limit can be addressed without going through the reconciliation process just as Democrats have been saying for months,” he said.
And on Friday Sen. McConnell mentioned Sen. Schumer’s comments in a letter he sent to Joe Biden informing him that Republicans would not help again.
“Last night, Republicans filled the leadership vacuum that has troubled the Senate since January. I write to inform you that I will not provide such assistance again if your all-Democrat government drifts into another avoidable crisis,” he said.
“The Senate Democratic Leader had three months’ notice to handle one of his most basic governing duties. Amazingly, even this proved to be asking too much. Senator Schumer spent 11 weeks claiming he lacked the time and the leadership skills to manage a straightforward process that would take less than two weeks. Whether through weakness or an intentional effort to bully his own members, Senator Schumer marched the nation to the doorstep of disaster. Embarrassingly, it got to the point where Senators on both sides were pleading for leadership to fill the void and protect our citizens. I stepped up.
“Remarkably, even as Republicans saved Americans from his crisis, Senator Schumer kept compounding his failures. Last night, in a bizarre spectacle, Senator Schumer exploded in a rant that was so partisan, angry, and corrosive that even Democratic Senators were visibly embarrassed by him and for him. This tantrum encapsulated and escalated a pattern of angry incompetence from Senator Schumer. It was reminiscent of last year when he joined a protest on the steps of the Supreme Court and shouted threats at individual Justices by name,” the senator said.
“This childish behavior only further alienated the Republican members who helped facilitate this short-term patch. It has poisoned the well even further.
“I am writing to make it clear that in light of Senator Schumer’s hysterics and my grave concerns about the ways that another vast, reckless, partisan spending bill would hurt Americans and help China, I will not be a party to any future effort to mitigate the consequences of Democratic mismanagement. Your lieutenants on Capitol Hill now have the time they claimed they lacked to address the debt ceiling through standalone reconciliation, and all the tools to do it. They cannot invent another crisis and ask for my help,” he said.
