WASHINGTON (AP) – House and Senate Republican leaders said they would refuse Wednesday Democratic demands immediately Extension of healthcare subsidieschallenge Democrats and not include them, but leave the government open at the end of the month, and vote against the suspension spending bill.
Senate majority leader John Toon, Rs.D. said Democrats “have a choice” as the September 30 deadline approaches. They can work with Republicans, Thune said, or “they can shut down the government with everything that means to the American people.”
The House was able to vote Thursday on Republican suspension measures to maintain federal agencies’ funds until November 21, allowing lawmakers to buy more time to resolve differences in spending levels. Republicans claim they provide exactly what Democrats have claimed in past government shutdown combat.
But Democrats said they released their counterproposal later Wednesday, despite Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson saying they wouldn’t consider it. The democratic proposal extends subsidies for low- and middle-income and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and reverse Medicaid reductions included in the Republican “Big Beautiful Building,” enacted earlier this year.
“If they sit down and negotiate, we sit down and negotiate,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. “We don’t have a red line, but we know we have to help the American people.”
Republicans need at least seven Democrats to vote to pass the short-term action. Without Democrats, Schumer said, “They’re going to shut down the government.”
It’s a high stakes game of appeal to Democrats, especially as the party’s foundations encourage them to fight harder, and the closures encourage Republicans to negotiate with them on healthcare and other issues. If the government closes on October 1st, most federal agencies will be closed, with millions of federal employees, including many of the military, being deemed non-essential and not receiving salaries. And there is no guarantee that the parties will find an agreement on how to end the standoff.
Democrats on both sides of the Capitol look closely at Schumer after him Last minute decision for March Vote with Republicans to keep the government open. Schumer argued that the shutdown would damage President Donald Trump and his White House would give more freedom to cut governments. Many on the left had rebelled, with some supporters urging him to resign.
The spring vote also sparked a temporary division with House Democrat Hake Jeffries, who opposed the GOP spending bill and said he would not “conspire” in Schumer’s vote.
Two Democrat leaders now say they’re united, and Schumer says that. It has been changed since March. After the Medicaid cuts pass, the public is more wary for Trump and Republicans, Schumer said.
The highest demand for Democrats was an extension of healthcare Tax credit It will expire at the end of the year. Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson have shown they are open to extending the grants. COVID-19 (COVID-19) Pandemic. But many Republicans want to see the change that Democrats are likely to oppose, and both Thune and Johnson have made it clear that they need more time to tackle the issue.
“They are trying to insert unrelated issues into the midst of a clean government extension, and I don’t think it will work,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNBC Wednesday morning.
The GOP bill generally funds institutions at current levels with a few limited exceptions, including an additional $88 million to increase the security of lawmakers, the Supreme Court and members of the administrative department. The proposed boost comes as lawmakers face a number of personal threats as concerns rises from last week’s assassination Conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The democratic alternatives introduced by Schumer on Wednesday include more than $180 million for Congressional security and $140 million for the Supreme Court and other federal courts.
Trump has so far denied the threat of a Democrat shutdown and said last week he wouldn’t even negotiate with them.
“If you gave them all their dreams, they wouldn’t vote for it,” Trump said.
Democrats tried to use those words against him and argued that the president would be held responsible if the government was shut down.
“Unless he forgets that a super majority is needed to pass the budget in the Senate, that’s clearly a signal he wants to close,” said Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Democrat.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freaking contributed to the report.
