Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–NY) is facing bipartisan backlash after he declared that the ongoing federal government shutdown is “getting better for us every day,” prompting sharp condemnation from the White House and Republican lawmakers.

The controversy erupted after Schumer told colleagues the prolonged shutdown—now entering its second week—was politically beneficial for Democrats.

The shutdown began after negotiations collapsed over Democrats’ push to restore health care funding for undocumented immigrants, a measure Republicans have rejected as “reckless and unfair to taxpayers.”

“Every day gets better for us,” Schumer said, according to . “It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance, and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30, and we prepared for it… Their whole theory was — threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two.”