By Manu Raju, Sarah Ferris, CNN

(CNN) — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made a major calculation in March: He voted to keep the government open and convinced enough Democrats to go along with him – and endured furious blowback from the left.

This time, he says, things have changed.

“The situation is much different,” Schumer said.

But the circumstances are the same. President Donald Trump and GOP leaders need the support of at least seven Senate Democrats to break a filibuster to keep the government open past September 30. To entice Schumer, they’re advancing a straight extension of government funding until November 21 – without poison pills – and including another $30 million to bolster security measures for lawmakers themselves.

Yet Schumer and Democratic leaders say the actions taken by Trump and the GOP-led Congress require a hardened approach – that they must withhold their votes until Republicans reverse some of their most controversial actions, like Medicaid cuts in Trump’s massive domestic policy law and the president’s moves to undermine Congress’ spending powers.

And Schumer wants to make clear there’s no daylight between him and his House counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries, after their split during the spring spending fight sent their party reeling for weeks and led to progressive fury against the Senate Democratic leader.

This time, Democrats are digging in — and Republicans are showing no signs of giving in.

“The vibes are bad,” said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, who is poised to become Schumer’s new top deputy and who voted with Republicans in March to keep the government open. His mindset seems to have shifted since then, too, telling reporters: “Donald Trump made it explicit that he doesn’t want to work with Democrats, and so I wish him the best.”

Speaker Mike Johnson plans to take the first step later this week by putting the stopgap bill on the House floor, though he may need a handful of Democrats to push the bill through his chamber given the opposition from some of his conservative rank-and-file. If it passes the House, then Schumer and Senate Democrats are signaling they’re ready to filibuster it.

Asked how he would handle the next step if Schumer blocks their continuing resolution, known as a CR, Senate Majority Leader John Thune predicted there would be a shutdown.

“It’s a clean CR,” an exasperated Thune told CNN. “What’s plan B? You tell me.”

Schumer, who contends Republicans are in a “much weaker” political position now than they were in the spring because of public disapproval over Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts bill, claimed that Democrats are “unified” now to make the battle focused on the future of Obamacare and other health programs.

It’s uncertain if Schumer, however, will maintain that position through any funding lapse, if hundreds of thousands of federal employees from TSA workers to food inspectors are forced to work without pay with Trump using his platforms to hammer Democrats.

And unless party leaders can find a way to resolve the bitter stalemate, Congress could be careening toward its first major funding lapse in six years. And this one — since it would involve a total government funding lapse, not just certain agencies — could be far more painful for an already battered federal work force.

Republicans insist Democrats are staging the theatrics to prove to their base that they’re fighting Trump. They argue that the GOP’s bill would actually fund the government at levels set by former President Joe Biden that Democrats have already supported.

“There’s nothing in the legislation they object to, not a single thing,” said Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. “Why would you vote no and shut down the government so you can have something else that’s unrelated?”

Cole added: “It’s irrational. I think this is more about politics. I think it’s about throwing a temper tantrum to sort of show you’re fighting.”

Democrats say the onus is on the GOP.

“Donald Trump controls the White House. He controls the House and he controls the Senate. The responsibility is on him,” Sen. Cory Booker, who sits on Schumer’s leadership team, said Tuesday. “I’m not going to give away my vote to a bill that’s going to hurt people more.”

One of the Democrats’ demands is already generating fierce anger among conservative hardliners — to push to extend Obamacare subsidies for roughly 22 million Americans that are set to expire at the end of 2025. And it’s the latest sign of how tough it could be for party leaders to reach any agreement to end the standoff.

While failing to extend those subsidies could lead to voter anger with millions paying more for health care, many conservatives are opposed to the plan because they say it’s an expensive government handout.

“That is not OK with me. That is a big red line,” Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado told CNN when asked about extending Obamacare subsidies, predicting that it would not pass the House.

“That’s a Democrat priority – that’s a deal with Democrats,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, a conservative Republican from Ohio.

Republican leaders insist that Democrats need to accept their current plan, which includes status-quo funding through late November – just before Congress’ Thanksgiving recess – to keep the government open. Senior Republicans in both chambers — as well as key figures in Trump’s White House — are open to a deal that would overhaul the Obamacare subsidies, but they say it should not be done as part of a short-term funding deal.

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the House conservatives who typically loathe these types of stopgap funding bills, made a private pitch to House Republicans on Tuesday morning to support the bill for Trump’s agenda, calling it a “common sense” move.

“What are the Democrats going to do, not vote for what they’ve voted for before? C’mon. That’s ridiculous,” Jordan told CNN.

“I’m hopeful that they’ll come to their senses, and there’ll be enough Democrats out there who consider Senator Schumer’s advice — which I think he’s getting from online trolls and activist groups, which he shouldn’t be listening to — that they’ll conclude that that’s really bad advice, and work with us to keep the government open,” Thune said. “My office is right here, Chuck’s is right here, it’s very easy for him to come here.”

Shutdown messaging war

Jeffries and House Democrats are expected to almost unanimously oppose the House GOP’s funding plan during the vote later this week – with few defections expected from their side, according to multiple people close to leadership. Johnson, meanwhile, believes he will be able to deliver the votes for the spending plan that much of his conference despises, with help from Trump.

If it passes, the bill would then head to the Senate by week’s end, where so far, only one Democrat – Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania – has said he will buck his party to back the GOP funding bill.

“I can’t put our entire economy at hostage for all those things because then that’s very dangerous,” Fetterman said Tuesday. “I do not believe that our nation needs a huge, gigantic injection of chaos of shutting down our government in the middle of especially in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”

Fetterman warned Democrats that shutting down the government would be akin to “mutilating our nation.”

Fetterman aside, Democrats believe their party will win the messaging war over a shutdown.

In a private meeting Tuesday, Jeffries told his members that Democrats are intentionally focused publicly on health care, including the Obamacare tax credits, because they have to set themselves up to win the public debate, according to a person in the room. And he added, another person in the room said, if House Democrats didn’t support the GOP’s same funding plan in March – when Schumer ultimately relented – why would Democrats support it now?

Publicly and privately, Jeffries and Schumer are much more closely aligned in strategy than the spring.

Jeffries, who was stunned six months ago as Schumer reversed course and backed a GOP bill that his own caucus opposed, said he had confidence in Senate Democrats this time. Asked if he believed Schumer would block the GOP’s funding bill, Jeffries said simply: “Yes.”

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CNN’s Morgan Rimmer, Arlette Saenz, Ted Barrett, Alison Main and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.