Congressional leaders are acknowledging that the government shutdown has no foreseeable end as both parties refuse to budge.
Senate Democrats, for the 11th time on Monday, blocked a stopgap bill to fund the government through Nov. 21, disproving the GOP’s theory that they would end the government shutdown after Saturday’s nationwide No Kings protests.
Leading up to the protests, Republicans said they hoped Democrats would be willing to compromise after showing their base they were fighting President Trump.
More than 7 million people reportedly attended the No Kings rallies. Now, Republicans are predicting that Democrats are feeling even more emboldened.
“Far-left groups were rallying this weekend, and the Democrat leader and other Democrat senators were out paying homage,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican. “And if these same left-wing groups have their way, Democrats will be keeping up the shutdown for a long time to come. They don’t really care about a solution.”
No Senate Democrats flipped their positions on the stopgap measure Monday. The party continues to demand a bipartisan negotiation on their health care and spending priorities.
Democrats’ top ask is an extension of their COVID-era expansion of Obamacare premium subsidies. The enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits are set to expire Dec. 31, but Democrats are hoping for a solution before the start of Obamacare open enrollment on Nov. 1.
“The ACA premium crisis is not a fix-it-later issue, like Republicans keep pretending it is,” said Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. “It’s a fix-it-now issue, because very soon, Americans are going to have to make some really difficult choices about which health care plan they choose for next year.”
Premiums for subsidized enrollees are projected to more than double on average if the enhanced subsidies expire. The Congressional Budget Office has said that if lawmakers wait until after Nov. 1 to extend the subsidies, it would likely not have an impact on premiums.
The reality of premium price increases will sink in for more Americans after open enrollment begins, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said as he declined to rule out the shutdown extending beyond Nov. 1.
“It will become even more apparent to everyday Americans why we need to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, because by that point, tens of millions of people across the country will realize that their health insurance premiums, copays and deductibles have skyrocketed beyond what’s affordable because of Republican inaction,” he said.
Republicans are refusing to negotiate on the Obamacare subsidies until the government is reopened, and they say Democrats are wasting time by keeping the shutdown going.
“If they really want to address their Obamacare mess, they should stop running out the clock on a deal,” Mr. Thune said. “All they’re doing by that action is keeping the government shut down and enhancing — enhancing, believe it or not — the chances this situation doesn’t get fixed.”
Republicans have been split on whether to extend the enhanced subsidies at all. GOP leaders like Mr. Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana are saying “reforms” to limit fraud, waste and abuse in the subsidies would be needed for any potential compromise.
“They are now eating up the clock for us to have the thoughtful debate about reforms and things that might be necessary if indeed that’s going to be extended,” Mr. Johnson said.
Democrats say they don’t see Republicans taking the issue seriously until Mr. Trump tells them to.
The White House has cited the shutdown as a rationale for canceling billions in funding for government projects in Democratic cities and states and laying off thousands of federal workers. A federal judge has placed the firings on hold pending further court action, but the Trump administration is considering further cost-cutting moves.
Kevin Hassett, the top White House economic adviser, told CNBC that if Democrats do not end the shutdown this week that the administration will have to consider “stronger measures that we could take to bring them to the table.”
The pressure is on Senate Democrats to accept the GOP stopgap bill. But the shutdown has already burned through three weeks of the seven-week stopgap funding period in which lawmakers had planned to negotiate and pass full-year appropriations bills.
Mr. Thune acknowledged Monday that the Nov. 21 date will likely need to be changed and that a prolonged shutdown will make it harder to have a normal appropriations process.
