After the Senate last week failed to approve a pair of competing bills to fund the government, including a measure that had been passed by House Republicans, Democratic leaders have been calling for a meeting with President Donald Trump and testing out their messaging for a potential government shutdown.
Over the weekend, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on the president to meet with them as they seek policy concessions, including an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, a reversal of Republican Medicaid cuts and an end to the Trump administration’s clawbacks of congressionally approved spending.
“At your direction, Republican congressional leaders have repeatedly and publicly refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations to keep the government open,” the two leaders wrote in a letter to Trump on Saturday. “Tens of millions of Americans are on the brink of their healthcare costs increasing by thousands of dollars per year, risking bankruptcy for many families. We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the healthcare and quality of life of the American people.”
Republicans insist that most of the demands from Schumer and Jeffries are non-starters, and they argue that Democrats are running the same playbook they have so often criticized in recent years, when they were the ones pushing a “clean” stopgap bill.
“My brain’s falling out of my head,” Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia told Politico. “When you talk about the Freedom Caucus talking about passing a CR and the Democrats saying, ‘I’m going to shut down the government.’ I’ve never seen anything so weird in my life.”
Schumer last week insisted that there’s a big difference between what Democrats are doing and what Republicans have tried in recent years. “What’s different? They were taking something away,” he told reporters. “We’re trying to restore something that they took away. It’s a world of difference when you’re trying to do some good for people rather than doing negative stuff for people.”
Trump talks down the chance for a deal: Based on past experience, Republicans are confident that Democrats will bear the brunt of public blame if there is a shutdown.
“If the government is shut down, it will be the fault of the Democrats, and it will only hurt the most vulnerable in our country: Our seniors, veterans, military families, increasing security for members of Congress, which is something this White House and the administration supports,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
Trump on Friday signaled that a shutdown may be likely. “We’ll continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could very well end up with a closed country for a period of time,” he told reporters. “I don’t know if you can make a deal with these people. I think these people are crazy.”
The next night, Trump said he’s open to a meeting but again downplayed the chances of a deal. “I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact,” he said. “They want all this stuff, they haven’t changed, they haven’t learned from the biggest beating they’ve ever taken, just about.” (That same evening, the president pressured Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute his political foes, raising alarms about the politicization of traditionally nonpartisan Justice Department and fueling criticisms that Trump is behaving in dictatorial fashion by pursuing retribution against his enemies.)
Democrats have also indicated a willingness to have the government shut down, especially given their base’s hunger for some kind of pushback against the Trump administration. Some Republicans reportedly still see a possibility that moderate Senate Democrats will ultimately fold and support a clean, short-term funding bill to keep agencies running. But in an interview with CNN on Sunday, Schumer wouldn’t rule out a shutdown and said Trump would be to blame if one happens. “Our Democrats are firm. We need to get something done to relieve the distress the American people are in,” Schumer said. “The bottom line is, we must — we must — get a better bill than what they have, plain and simple.”
What’s next: No White House meeting has been set, though there are reports that Trump plans to meet with lawmakers at some point this week. When the Senate returns on September 29, lawmakers will have hardly any time to see if they can break their impasse. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is expected to squeeze Democrats by holding another vote on the “clean” House-passed bill. House leaders have said they won’t be holding any votes before October 1, after the shutdown deadline.
The bottom line: A shutdown isn’t a certainty yet, particularly given that many Republicans also want to extend the higher Affordable Care Act subsidies. But there’s still no clear path out of the current partisan stalemate.