Centrist senators are giving up hope of avoiding a government shutdown this week after a contentious meeting between President Trump and congressional leaders Monday failed to make progress on a short-term funding bill.
One Democratic senator who requested anonymity said it’s now highly unlikely that Trump and congressional leaders will reach any preliminary agreement to allow a funding bill to pass by Tuesday’s deadline.
The source said both GOP and Democratic leaders appear to be itching for a shutdown and feeling confident they’ll score political points with their parties’ bases.
Those hardened positions have quashed behind-the-scenes efforts by a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans to work out some sort of mutual understanding or soft deal to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1.
“There’s a lot of interest in seeing a resolution but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be shared by leadership of the other side or the president. Trump wants a shutdown and the House Democrats want a shutdown,” the source said.
The pressure that House Democrats are putting on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and the Senate Democratic caucus to take a hard line over the funding bill is a major factor because Schumer became the target of an angry backlash from progressives when he voted in March for a partisan House-passed funding bill.
Schumer’s vote for the GOP-drafted funding bill in March caught House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) by surprise. Senate Democratic sources say Schumer is intent that he and Jeffries stay on the same page during this fight.
Senate Democratic sources also say that Schumer’s leadership is increasingly drawing complaints from within the party and he doesn’t want to give progressive critics any ammo by capitulating to Republicans in a spending showdown.
Schumer on Monday shot down talk about Senate Democrats proposing a weeklong or 10-day government funding bill to buy more time for the two sides to continue talking.
He told reporters that Congress can’t wait any longer to extend the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that are due to expire at the end of the year.
He argued that people would start to see their health insurance premiums begin to soar next month if lawmakers don’t act now.
“No, we have to do it now. The time is a wasting. We have to do it now. We’ve delayed and delayed and delayed,” he said, arguing that the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies can’t wait.
And he said a weeklong continuing resolution would just give Republicans more time to avoid addressing the health care issue.
Schumer told reporters after the White House meeting that President Trump appeared to listen to his arguments about the need to extend expiring health insurance premium subsidies.
The New York Democrat even tried to drive a wedge between Trump and his GOP congressional allies by claiming that the president didn’t even realize that Americans around the country will see their health care premiums rise substantially. Schumer effectively accused GOP leaders of trying to shield the president from that information.
“The particular focus was on health care. When we made these arguments it was clear there was a division or possible division between the president and the two Republican leaders,” Schumer said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who attended the meeting, dismissed that claim as ridiculous.
“I think Schumer is desperate to change the subject. I don’t know what he’s talking about. I mean we’re all on the same page,” Thune told reporters after a Monday afternoon vote.
Jeffries described the meeting at the White House as a “frank and sharp discussion.”
“If the government shuts down, it’s because Republicans have decided to shut the government down and hurt the American people. It’s a point that we made loudly and clearly in that meeting,” Jeffries said.
Schumer claimed that Trump “admitted” that he would get some blame for the shutdown because Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Republican leaders, however, said it’s the Democrats, not Trump, who will take the brunt of the political fallout from a shutdown.
Vice President JD Vance described the meeting as “very frank” and blasted Schumer and Jeffries for threatening to trigger a shutdown over “policy disagreements.”
“You don’t put a gun to the American people’s head and say, ‘Unless you do exactly what Senate and House Democrats want you to do, we’re going to shut down your government.’ That’s exactly what they’re proposing out there,” Vance told reporters at the White House.
“I think we’re headed to a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing. I hope they change their mind but we’re going to see,” he said.
Vance was flanked at the podium by White House budget director Russ Vought, who has spearheaded the effort by the administration to claw back $5 billion in foreign aid through a pocket rescission, a controversial tactic that hasn’t been attempted since the Carter administration.
Schumer and Jeffries insisted at Monday’s meeting that any government funding deal must extend the subsidies and must include an assurance from Trump that he will stop his administration’s attempts to undermine bipartisan funding deals by clawing back money through pocket rescissions and impoundments.
Speaking at the Capitol later in the day, Schumer called on Trump to press Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to add language to a House-passed continuing resolution to extend the enhanced health care subsidies and safeguard Congress’s power of the purse.
GOP leaders said that won’t happen.
“What we did in the Republican majority is the right, responsible, simple thing: A clean continuing resolution. A short-term non-partisan resolution,” Johnson said at the White House. “There’s nothing partisan in here. No policy riders, none of our big party preferences because we want to do the right thing by the American people and allow more time for negotiation.”
He said the Democratic leaders came to the White House “to stomp their feet” and insist on adding “extraneous issues” to the House-passed short-term funding measure.
Thune accused Democrats of “hostage taking,” flashing the 24-page “clean” funding measure that Senate Democrats blocked on Sept. 19.
“This is sitting right now at the Senate desk. We could pick it up and pass it tonight. We could pick it up and pass it tomorrow before the government shuts down,” he said. “It is totally up to the Democrats because right now they are the only thing between the American people and the government shutting down.”
Source: The Hill
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