6 days ago

Democrats Stiffen Resolve As Government Shutdown Drags On

WASHINGTON — The federal government shutdown will drag into next week after the U.S. Senate left town on Friday following yet another set of failed votes on a pair of funding bills.

There are no signs lawmakers have made any progress toward a deal as Democrats continue to demand action on health care policy while Republicans insist that reopening the government should be the first step.

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Democrats feel vindicated by a raft of new polling showing bipartisan support for an extension of enhanced subsidies for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, which are due to expire at the end of the year. A majority of Republican voters, including Donald Trump loyalists, also want the tax credits to be renewed next year, according to a poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

“It’s not just our people or their people, it’s American people,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told HuffPost. “So many of the folks who rely on this health care are not people who even voted for me in my own state, but they need it.”

“I think there is a strong understanding that not only are we right from a moral and policy perspective, we’re going to win this thing politically. Because if I’m a Republican, I do not want to go home and defend this,” added Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Some Republicans also say they are open to addressing the coming insurance premium hikes, but only after at least five Senate Democrats join them in breaking a filibuster and reopening the government.

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“You got to do something to make sure the premiums don’t essentially double, which they will in my state for private insurance,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Friday. “We just can’t allow that to happen. That’s a lot of Missourians who will not be able to afford health care.”

Republican leadership has dug in on not negotiating with Democrats until the government is open. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) made clear he couldn’t guarantee that the Senate would take up an extension of the Obamacare subsidies even if the government reopens.

“We can’t make commitments or promises on the [Obamacare] subsidies because that’s not something that we can guarantee there are the votes to do. What I’ve said is I’m open to having conversations with our Democrat colleagues about how to address that issue,” Thune said at a press conference on Friday.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he would not even call the House back into session until the Senate passes the short-term funding bill that House Republicans already approved — ruling out the prospect of any bipartisan negotiations.

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“The House did its job,” Johnson told reporters on Friday. “So the House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government.”

Johnson already canceled votes that had been scheduled for this week. The House hasn’t held a vote since Sept. 19.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has remained on the sidelines, taking weird social media potshots at Democrats and giving the impression his famed instinct for making deals has not yet been activated.

“Throughout this week, Donald Trump has been missing in action. He remains in the presidential witness protection program,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said at a press conference Friday, seemingly alluding to Trump’s absence from public view in recent days.

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Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been sent home, resulting in diminished services for the public, such as unstaffed national parks and no jobs report for the month of September at a time of high uncertainty about the economy’s direction.

The first direct deposit paycheck federal workers will miss if the shutdown continues is next Friday, Oct. 10, according to the General Services Administration. Military service members who are not active-duty will begin missing paychecks starting on Oct. 15. It’s anyone’s guess whether the government will be open by then, or if the workers on furlough will wind up being permanently laid off as the White House has threatened.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she was “encouraged” by informal bipartisan conversations that occurred this week among rank-and-file senators. Asked if she thought they could end the shutdown, Murkowski demurred.

“I have no idea,” she said. “Just because we’re talking doesn’t mean that we’re there yet.”

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Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) was also pessimistic about the chances of a deal coming together soon, using a football analogy to describe the standoff.

“We’re on the five-yard line. Not sure if it’s our own five-yard line, or the other five-yard line,” Daines said.