Chuck Schumer needs to step aside.

FACE OUR FEARS: The Democrats need new leadership.

The Democrats in the Senate have found themselves in quite a bind under Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s leadership.

It is more than five months into the fiscal year of 2025 and the Democrats have demanded nothing. It’s weird because when the Republicans AREN’T in power, nothing can seem to get done because they put up such a fight and now that the Democrats are in the same position? They seem to be rolling over for Speaker Mike Johnson and Senator Majority Leader John Thune.

Leadership hasn’t demanded much publicly, appearing weak in front of constituents and instead Sen. Bernie Sanders, Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Rep. Jasmine Crockett have been on the front lines forcing the party to confront the progressive wing who are demanding change to leadership and to policy initiatives.

The vote to keep the government open yesterday all but seals the deal that the Democrats have conceded whatever leverage they may have had. Honestly, I don’t what I would have done if I was in a position of leadership because if we had shut the government down, then entire departments like the EPA or HHS could come to a grinding halt.

But now knowing it won’t be shut down and CR passes as is, then the money is appropriated BUT without guidelines from Congress…which means Trump and co-president Musk could decide how that money is spent…or not spent.

REALITY CHECK: Either way, it ain’t good.

And I get why people are all for shutting it down. Since the stock market has plunged due to Trump’s tariff policies, the public is becoming restless about the cost of living rising while DOGE cuts federal jobs by the thousands without any oversight. They felt this would put pressure on the Republicans to have to back down and come back to negotiations around funding. But would they have done that? I don’t feel optimistic that the Republicans would or will compromise with Democrats on anything at this point.

But on the other hand, why should Americans hand over a blank check to co-presidents Musk and Trump while we struggle to put food on the table and have to choose between the light bill or life-saving drugs? They continue to illegally steal power from Congress and consolidate it into the executive branch, reshaping our democracy to that of a dictatorship.

What I do know is that it is becoming clearer by the minute that we need new leadership on the Democrat side. We need to center democrats who are willing to fight for working people. We need democrats who are willing to stand up to the billionaire class.

Allowing an unelected bureaucrat like Musk use the United States as his personal piggy bank is not a sign of a healthy or functioning democracy.

And lest we forget:

Elon Musk hasn’t saved taxpayer money, nor has he found fraud.

According to multiple outlets who did their homework (and some math) recently, the DOGE has lied about largest spending cuts. The Wall Street Journal, NPR and The New York Times found that none of what Musk was claiming to have saved with the DOGE was even making financial sense.

Let’s break them down:

1. The $8 billion DOGE claimed it cut from immigration and customs enforcement was—wait for it—$8 million. In fact, ICE’s entire budget is 8 billion, so unless we say bye-bye ICE (which would be a great way to save taxpayer money actually) there was no way this administration was going to cut them. Especially with their talks of ramping up deportation efforts.

2. Musk originally stated that $232 million was cut from the Social Security Administration…but in actuality, DOGE only saved $560,000 by canceling a portion of a contract with defense contracting company Leidos.

3. Want more? Of course you do—can you count to three? Apparently Musk and his team don’t know how to do that because DOGE did not actually save $655 million from the US Agency for International Development but instead it was one cut that they counted three times. So silly.

4. And speaking of silly, while Musk claims that DOGE made a mistake by cuting USAid’s Ebola prevention but had restored it, the officials (both current and former) said this: There have been no efforts to “turn on” Ebola prevention, said Nidhi Bouri, who oversaw the team until this January.

I want you to share this with Trump supporters if you are chaotic good (that’s a joke for my husband who I know reads my Substack) because here are a few other tidbits that relate:

1. The Republicans’ new budget which gives the rich $4.5 TRILLION in tax cuts does NOT include no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security or no tax on tips.

2. To pay for these tax cuts for billionaires they are cutting up to $880 Billion in Medicaid and up to $230 BILLION in SNAP.

3. They also want to slash student loan forgiveness and repayment plan programs, leading to a lifetime of indebtedness by borrowers.

And here is some food for thought to tie this all together.:

When the Republicans cut Medicaid and SNAP, crime will surge. People who need essentials will take them, possibly get arrested and charged with theft and then put into the for profit-prison system. Democrats haven’t helped matters by continue to increase police budgets and allow social services funding to dry up.

We are over policing and under resourcing our communities.

In the words of Sir Thomas More: “For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”

Our lives and livelihoods are on the line. I don’t have faith in Schumer as our leader in this new America. I think it is long overdue that the old guard step aside and let fresh ideas and energy push this party forward in the direction it needs to go—centering working people’s policies so that we all have a chance to thrive.

Now that would make America great again.

Until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other. In solidarity, Natalie

---

Did you like the latest Facts Over Fear newsletter? Please “like” and “share” as that encourages Substack to increase its reach. Thank you to all of my subscribers!

Please consider a paid subscription to help expand this work.