No one wants to shoulder the government shutdown blame
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Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 19. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
With a deadline to fund the government just around the corner, lawmakers appeared locked in a battle of blame on Sunday.
The big picture: After President Trump canceled a prior meeting with Democratic leadership, he's now set to sit down with the top four congressional leaders on Monday, but finding common ground to craft a deal seems a far-fetched feat.
- Republican leadership says it's up to Democrats to keep the lights on despite intense grassroots pressure they face, while Democrats say the GOP is jeopardizing Americans' health care by not addressing the Affordable Care Act tax credits due to expire at year's end.
- Trump has framed Democrats' demands as "ridiculous." But Senate Republicans need support from across the aisle to pass the vote threshold for a government funding measure.
Driving the news: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday that whether the government shuts down this week is "totally up to the Democrats."
- Democrats are attempting to "hijack" the process and "are afraid of their base," Thune said. "They're trying to do something to get them motivated and not angry at them."
Yes, but: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that pressure "absolutely not" what's different about Democrats' current fight after he felt his party's wrath when he caved on March's stopgap measure.
- Rather, he told NBC's Kristen Welker, Democrats are focused on health care.
- "There is going to be huge pressure on Republican senators, congressmen, and even Trump to do something about this horrible health care crisis," he said on "Meet the Press."
Friction point: Schumer (unsurprisingly) sees the funding onus falling on shoulders other than Thune's: "It depends on the Republicans," he said.
- He urged Republicans to have a "serious negotiation" Monday.
- "Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant, and just yell at Democrats, and talk about all his alleged grievances ... we won't get anything done," he said.
Between the lines: What's yet to be seen is if the president wants to strike a deal or use the meeting to land a strike against Democrats.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said "we'll have to see" what it will entail, but he said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the president "wants to do right by the people."
- Johnson claimed Schumer "wants to reinstate free health care for illegal aliens paid by American taxpayers." However, undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally funded health coverage.
- Trump "wants to bring in the leaders to come in and act like leaders and do the right thing for the American people," Johnson said.
Zoom out: Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on ABC's "This Week" that he and Schumer are entering Trump's arena seeking "bipartisan common ground." But he said it's also Democrats' position that "we've got to address this Republican health care crisis."
- Tax credits that made ACA marketplace coverage more affordable are central to Democrats' side of the shutdown showdown. If they expire, per a recent analysis, hospitals could see a $7.7 billion spike in uncompensated care.
- But Johnson says those subsidies are a policy debate for later in the year — not now.
What's next: Jeffries said he hopes a shutdown is avoided. But if it does happen, he said, he wants lawmakers to find a way out of the dark quickly.
- In late 2018, during Trump's first term, the government partially shut down. It took a record five weeks to reopen.
Go deeper: House Dems plan to flood the zone with shutdown messaging
