King Schumer hasn't ever said he would consider re-opening the government for anything less than the $1.5 trillion in goodies he wants added to the C.R.

Maybe not, but there's no way he'd be able to turn down a win if the GOP buckles and redoes the CR with all the ACA subsidies extended.

It doesn't make any sense. Even if you want to believe that Chuck Schumer is evil right down to his cold black heart, which pumps not blood like yours and mine, but rather a thick, vomitous oil - it's just terrible politics to keep the government shut down forever no matter what you're given.

He's not going to do that. He's not going to want to do that. He wants to get a win that he can proclaim to the mountaintops, not an unending stalemate. If he refuses to ever take a win, he'll never get a win.

And he isn't a "King" over the other Democratic Senators. Right now, their hanging together because it looks like they might actually get a tangible win out of all of this - they might genuinely get the subsidies restored because of their strategy. But if the plan is actually, "we shutting down the government for a year and not accepting any yes for an answer," then he'll lose at least a dozen Senators and they'll just vote for the CR that has the ACA subsidies in it over his objections.

But it won't come to that. If they're able to force the subsidies into a new CR for a long enough period of time (they won't accept a day-long extension, won't refuse a decade-long extension, will land somewhere in between), the Democrats will say "yes" any day of the week and twice on Sunday.