Schumer Seeks to Place Shutdown Blame on Boehner

Powerful Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York already is playing the blame game. He says House Speaker John Boehner isn’t doing enough to push Republican fiscal hawks to accept smaller spending cuts so a budget agreement can be reached and the government can avoid a shutdown, The Hill reports.

To be sure, Schumer couches his criticism in polite terms. "Speaker Boehner is somebody we all have a great deal of affection for and sympathy for," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "But you know, Mr. President, the hour is nigh, and leadership is called for. And to allow this small group … to dominate everything that is happening and hurt millions of innocent people is not leadership."

Schumer is more strident in criticizing what he calls “this hard right in the House of Representatives, some of them members of the tea party, … who want to satisfy the agenda of the extreme right wing."