President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders ended their high-stakes meeting Monday without a plan for averting a government shutdown that will begin Wednesday morning.
Democratic leaders left the meeting citing “large differences” with Republicans on their health care and spending priorities, while Republicans predicted a shutdown would happen because Democrats wouldn’t drop their left-wing demands.
“I think we’re headed into a shutdown, because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,” said Vice President J.D. Vance, who attended the meeting. “I hope they change their mind, but we’re going to see.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, described the Democrats’ tactics as “purely and simply hostage taking.”
Republicans are pushing a stopgap bill that would extend most current government funding levels and policies through Nov. 21.
Democrats said they would only vote for that if Republicans add a permanent extension of pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies and provisions to stop the Trump administration from using rescissions and impoundment to ignore congressional spending directives.
Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York left the meeting saying the two parties have “very large differences” still to bridge on those areas but that Mr. Trump was more receptive than Mr. Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican.
“It’s now in the president’s hands,” Mr. Schumer said. “He can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want.”
While Democrats laid out their asks, Mr. Trump did not commit to anything.
“We want to work across the aisle to make sure that people have access to good health care,” Mr. Vance said. “We are not going to let Democrats shut down the government, take a hostage, unless we give them everything they want.”
Mr. Vance, Mr. Thune and Mr. Johnson all rejected Democrats’ overture, saying they are pushing for $1.5 trillion in unrelated spending on a seven-week stopgap funding measure.
“We’re not going to do that. They know we can’t do that,” Mr. Johnson said. “And we never have in the past.”
The $1.5 trillion figure Republicans cited includes the $350 billion cost of permanently extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies and rolling back GOP cuts to Medicaid that Democrats included in their counterproposal earlier this month.
Mr. Schumer did not mention the Medicaid reversal among the asks Democrats made of the president on Monday, even as he and Mr. Jeffries discussed the consequences of the GOP funding cuts, such as contributing to the closures of rural hospitals and community health clinics.
“By his face and by the way he looked, I think he heard about them for the first time,” Mr. Schumer said.
Republicans say their Medicaid changes shore up the program by requiring able-bodied adults to work and preventing benefits from going to illegal immigrants. Mr. Vance called the Democrats’ plan to reverse that a “crazy” idea and said he is “highly skeptical” that Mr. Trump was learning about anything for the first time from Mr. Schumer.
Still, Mr. Vance acknowledged he and Mr. Trump thought some of the Democrats’ other ideas were “reasonable.” He did not specify which ideas those were, but he said Republicans wouldn’t agree to anything until the government is funded.
Democrats are most worried about the looming expiration of their COVID-19 expansion of Obamacare subsidies. Mr. Schumer said people will pay on average $400 more a month, close to $5,000 a year on premiums, if Congress does not extend the enhanced subsidies, which cap premium costs at 8.5% of household income.
The enhanced subsidies expire at the end of the year, but notices of premium increases go out Oct. 1. Mr. Schumer said Mr. Trump was unaware of that immediate impact.
Democrats do not believe Republicans will negotiate with them on extending the Obamacare subsidies later if they agree to fund the government without codifying that in law.
“Later means never. They don’t want to do this, the Republican leaders,” Mr. Schumer said. “It’ll divide their party. Their right wing hates ACA altogether. But we have to get it done.”
“The way to do this is the president, who was really listening to us, tells the Republicans to do it,” he said.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the discussion with Mr. Trump and GOP congressional leaders was “frank and direct” but ended with “significant and meaningful differences” between the two parties.
“This is a health care fight,” he said. “But it’s also a fight to lower the high cost of living here in the United States of America.”
