Lawmakers Meet Ahead Of Pending Government Shutdown
Congressional Leaders Meet Ahead Of Pending Government Shutdown Over Funding Bill
Welp, the U.S. government is on the precipice of yet another shutdown due largely to the inability of the two parties in our two-party system to get along — a condition that has likely been exacerbated by a White House administration led by a president who is observably content with being the most intentionally divisive commander in chief of the 21st century.
As the Associated Press reports, congressional leaders, including Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Speaker Mike Johnson, are meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in a last-ditch effort to avoid a shutdown over Republicans’ and Democrats’ failure to come to an agreement on government funding legislation that needs to be passed by Congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday night. If the legislation is not passed by then, “government offices across the nation will be temporarily shuttered and nonexempt federal employees will be furloughed, adding to the strain on workers and the nation’s economy,” AP reported.
The funding bill has already passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, leaving government funding in place for seven more weeks while Congress works on annual spending legislation. But Senate Democrats are pushing back on the bill for the same general reason House Democrats did: because they believe Republicans are, once again, trying to gut healthcare coverage.
From AP:
Democrats are pushing for an extension to Affordable Care Act tax credits that have subsidized health insurance for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits, which are designed to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people, are set to expire at the end of the year.
At a Monday news conference, Jeffries, a New York Democrat, called health care cuts a “five-alarm fire” that is rippling across communities nationwide.
“We’re not going to simply go along to get along with a Republican bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans who are already living with this Trump economy, where costs aren’t going down but they’re going up,” he said.
The pandemic-era ACA subsidies are set to expire in a matter of months if Congress fails to act.
Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits but want changes. Thune said Sunday that the program is “desperately in need of reform” and Republicans want to address “waste, fraud and abuse.” He has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later.
Predictably, Trump, his Cabinet and congressional Republicans are blaming Democrats for putting government funding in jeopardy by not simply falling in line with the bill as is.
“The president wants to keep the government open, he wants to keep the government funded,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House on Monday morning, adding Trump was “giving Democrats one last chance to be reasonable today.”
“If it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down, but they’re the ones that are shutting down government,” Trump said Friday, referring to Democratic lawmakers.
For the legislation to pass, 60 out of 100 U.S. Senators will have to get on board behind it, which means at least eight Democrats would have to vote in favor of it. The bill would only need the support of seven Democratic senators if not for the fact that Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is expected to vote against it, as AP noted.
So, now we wait and see if this meeting of congressional leaders will be productive and allow the government to avoid shutting down, or if it continues to be the case that no truce between the Bloods and Crips is possible at all.
Are we great again, or what?
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