Senate Majority Leader John Thune is rejecting Democratic demands on health care as unserious but says a government shutdown is still \u201cavoidable.\u201d<\/b>
\nSenate Majority Leader John Thune is rejecting Democratic demands on health care as unserious but says a government shutdown is still \u201cavoidable\u201d despite sharp divisions ahead of Wednesday\u2019s funding deadline.
\u201cI\u2019m a big believer that there\u2019s always a way out,\u201d the South Dakota Republican said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. \u201cAnd I think there are off-ramps here, but I don\u2019t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.\u201d
Thune said Democrats are going to have to \u201cdial back\u201d their demands, which include immediately extending health insurance subsidies and reversing the health care policies in the massive tax bill that Republicans passed over the summer. Absent that, Thune said, \u201cwe\u2019re probably plunging forward toward the shutdown.\u201d
It\u2019s just the latest standoff in Washington over government funding, stretching back through several administrations. President Donald Trump was the driving force behind the longest shutdown ever during his first term, as he sought money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. This time it is Democrats who are making demands as they face intense pressure from their core supporters to stand up to the Republican president and his policies.
Democrats have shown little signs of relenting, just before spending runs out Wednesday. Their position remained the same even after the White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday released a memo that said agencies should consider a \u201creduction in force\u201d for many federal programs if the government closes \u2014 meaning thousands of federal workers could be permanently laid off.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the OMB memo was simply an \u201cattempt at intimidation\u201d and predicted the \u201cunnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back.\u201d
Thune stopped short of criticizing the White House threat of mass layoffs, saying the situation remains \u201ca hypothetical.\u201d Still, he said no one should be surprised by the memo as \u201ceveryone knows Russ Vought,\u201d the head of the Office of Management and Budget, and his longtime advocacy for slashing government.
\u201cBut it\u2019s all avoidable,\u201d Thune said. \u201cAnd so if they don\u2019t want to go down that path, there\u2019s a way to avoid going down that path.\u201d
One way to avoid a shutdown, Thune said, would be for enough Democrats to vote with Republicans for a stripped-down \u201cclean\u201d bill to keep the government open for the next seven weeks while negotiations on spending continue. That\u2019s how Republicans avoided a shutdown in March, when Schumer and several other Democrats decided at the last minute to vote with Republicans \u2014 to great political cost when Schumer\u2019s party then revolted.
A seven-week funding bill has already passed the House.
\u201cWhat would eight Democrats be willing to support?\u201d Thune asked. \u201cIn terms of a path forward, or at least understanding what that path forward looks like.\u201d
Republicans in the 100-member Senate need at least seven Democrats to vote with them to get the 60 votes necessary for a short-term funding package, and they may lose up to two of their own \u2014 Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky both opposed it in preliminary votes last week. A competing bill from Democrats also fell well short of 60 votes.
Thune suggested some individual bipartisan bills to fund parts of the government for the next year could be part of a compromise, \u201cbut that requires cooperation from both sides,\u201d he said.
Democrats say they are frustrated that Thune hasn\u2019t approached them to negotiate \u2014 and that Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York that had been scheduled for this week. Trump wrote on social media, \u201cI have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive.\u201d
Thune said he \u201cdid have a conversation with the president\u201d and offered his opinion on the meeting, which he declined to disclose. \u201cBut I think the president speaks for himself, and I think he came to the conclusion that that meeting would not be productive,\u201d Thune said.
Still, he says he thinks Trump could be open to a negotiation on the expanded health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year if Democrats weren\u2019t threatening a shutdown. Many people who receive the subsidies through the marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act are expected to see a sharp rise in premiums if Congress doesn\u2019t extend them.
Some Republicans have agreed with Democrats that keeping the subsidies is necessary, but Thune says \u201creform is going to have to be a big part of it.\u201d Democrats are likely to oppose such changes.
Thune said he intends to bring up the bills that were rejected last week. \u201cThey\u2019ll get multiple chances to vote,\u201d he said, before a government shutdown begins at midnight Wednesday.
He said he hopes \u201ccooler heads will prevail.\u201d
\u201cI don\u2019t think shutdowns benefit anybody, least of all the American people,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n