U.S. Budget & OBBB | OCT 1 - Gov’t Shutdown Begins

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Healthcare at Center of Government Shutdown Fight—and Democrats Insist They Won’t Blink​


time.com

Healthcare at Center of Shutdown Fight—and Democrats Say They Won't Blink

Democrats say healthcare is be the battlefield, and they won't help Republicans avert a government shutdown without concessions
time.com time.com

“… Party leaders have signaled that they plan to use the looming funding showdown to press for reversals of Medicaid cuts, extensions of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, and limits on President Donald Trump’s spending authority—even if it means shouldering the political risk if negotiations collapse.

“Healthcare is a clear red line,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York told reporters on Thursday. “We will not support a partisan Republican spending bill that rips health care away from the American people.”

Government funding expires at the end of the day on Sept. 30, and without action, much of the federal government would close. Republicans narrowly control both chambers of Congress but need some Democratic votes to reach the required 60-vote threshold to pass a funding bill in the Senate. Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and other Democrats are signaling they intend to use that leverage to reopen the fight over Trump’s domestic agenda, particularly provisions in his “one big, beautiful bill” that cut deeply into Medicaid and jeopardize subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Together, the two policies threaten to raise costs or strip coverage from millions of Americans—and Democrats say they will not sign off on another spending bill without concessions….”

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Color me skeptical of the Democrats’ resolve.
 
If I'm the Democrats, I press three issues that require progress in exchange for a funding resolution:

1) Health care - extension of ACA subsidies and full reversal of Medicaid cuts. This is the tangible part of what we are fighting for.
2) The administration agrees to spend what's currently been authorized by Congress. What's the point of negotiating a funding and spending resolution if it's not be going to be followed.
3) A statutory tightening of when emergency powers can be invoked and how long they last as they pertain to national guard and military operations in domestic arenas.
 
"...“There is something wrong with them,” Trump said about Democrats in a rare in-studio “Fox and Friends” interview. “If you gave them every dream right now ... they want to give away money to this or that and destroy the country. If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it.”

“Don’t even bother dealing with them,” he added. “We will get it through because the Republicans are sticking together for the first time in a long time.”

Lawmakers have until midnight on Sept. 30 to reach a funding deal. GOP congressional leaders are eyeing a “clean” stopgap that would keep current spending levels in place, with a few exceptions, until late November.

But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said this week that Democrats will not vote for any such bill absent bipartisan negotiations. Both leaders have said that health care concessions, such as extending soon-to-expire insurance subsidies or restoring Medicaid cuts made in the GOP megabill, are essential to a deal.

Democrats have say in the matter because any funding deal will need 60 votes in the Senate, where the GOP has a 52-vote majority. But Trump on Friday suggested he was not aware of the mathematics.

“We have to get Republican votes. That’s all,” Trump claimed. Pressed about the 60-vote threshold, Trump responded: “No. We’re gonna do a — probably a continuing resolution, or we’re gonna do something. So we’re gonna do something,” he said.

“Here is the problem,” Trump quickly added, “the Democrats have: They’re sick. There is something wrong with them. Schumer is at end of the rope.” ..."

 
Not sure I trust Schumer to get this plan through without massive blowback. I think clean CR will blow up in Schumer's face.

Seems it would be easier to pass the buck to the House to be Johnson's problem.
 
Recall that the Democrats don't actually have any power to shut the government down. If they play hardball, the Pubs can just kill the filibuster or restrict its use and do what they want to do.
 
I don't get why messaging is a problem for Dems on this one. They should just say every day that the GOP controls all of the government and won't let us help. (use the words "let us help" rather then negotiate with us) This shifts the blame I would think.
 
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