WASHINGTON: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are \u201cmarching the country\u201d into a government shutdown over their refusal to meet with Democrats and strike a deal to save health care funding from cuts.<\/p>\n
Jeffries told the Associated Press in an interview late Friday that he remained hopeful Congress could reach an agreement to prevent a federal funding lapse next week, ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline.<\/p>\n
But with Republicans having canceled next week\u2019s House voting session and Trump canceling his meeting with the Democratic leaders this week, he said, \u201cthe onus is on Donald Trump to show some presidential leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump and Republicans are chaos agents,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cAt moments in time that require stable, presidential leadership, Donald Trump is incapable of providing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This shutdown, not the nation\u2019s first, could be more difficult. Trump\u2019s budget office this week ordered federal agencies to prepare a mass firing of federal workers, rather than the typical temporary employee furlough, if the federal government were to close.<\/p>\n
The Republican leaders, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, say a shutdown can still be avoided if Democrats drop their demands. Before leaving town, House Republicans approved legislation that would keep the government funded into November, as Congress works to finish up its regular appropriations work. But that measure failed in the Senate, as did a Democrat alternative that included the health care funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my hope that we can find resolution over the next few days and avoid a government shutdown,\u201d Jeffries said.<\/p>\n
The Democratic leader, who is in line to become the House speaker if Democrats regain the majority in next year\u2019s midterm elections, has become the party\u2019s chief messenger in the high-stakes funding fight. The Democrats are confronting restive voters demanding that they stand up to the Trump administration and quit funding the White House\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n
Trump may not say Jeffries\u2019 name out loud \u2014 the Democratic leader said he was informed recently that in the past decade, since Trump entered politics, the Republican president has not mentioned the Democrat from Brooklyn \u2013 but Jeffries this week repeatedly name-checked him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump, Get back to Washington, DC.,\u201d Jeffries said earlier at the US Capitol, as the president attended the Ryder Cup in New York. \u201cWhy are you at a golf event right now? And the government is four days away from closing. That\u2019s outrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Trump abruptly canceled the planned meeting with him and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, Jeffries said at the Capitol, \u201cWhy did you back out of the meeting, bro?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeffries told his colleagues on a private conference call on Friday with House Democrats to \u201cstay the course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats are fighting to shore up health care funding, and in particular to prevent the expiration of enhanced subsidies, put in place during the COVID-19 crisis, that helped Americans pay for insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Without action, the boosted subsidy will lapse, risking premium spikes for millions of Americans nationwide.<\/p>\n
Republicans have said Democratic demands to roll back the Medicaid cuts in the GOP\u2019s big tax cuts and spending bill that Trump signed into law this summer are a nonstarter. And the GOP leaders have said talks on the ACA subsidies can wait until the end of the year, when they are set to expire.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouse Democrats are united,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cDonald Trump and the Republican Party are marching the country into a painful government shutdown because they do not want to address the health care crisis that they created.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Republican congressional leaders believe Democrats are heading toward a political cliff.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re walking in a trap they all set for themselves,\u201d Johnson, of Louisiana, said during an interview on the Moon Griffon radio show in his home state.<\/p>\n
Johnson acknowledged he encouraged Trump not to meet with the Democratic leaders this week after the White House had already agreed to Thursday\u2019s scheduled meeting. Trump abruptly pulled out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe and I talked about it at length yesterday and the day before. I said, look, when they get their job done, once they do the basic governing work of keeping the government open, as president, then you can have a meeting with him,\u201d Johnson said on the Mike & McCarty Show. \u201cOf course, it might be productive at that point, but right now, this is just a waste of his time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has been here before. During his first term, the country endured the longest shutdown, some 35 days over the 2018-19 winter holiday season, as lawmakers refused his demand for funding to build a promised US-Mexico border wall.<\/p>\n
Before that, the government shut down for more than two weeks in 2013, during the Obama administration, over failed Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n
Jeffries expects this shutdown, if it happens, would end as those past ones did, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of both of those shutdowns, Republicans came to the conclusion that their position was unsustainable,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in my view, that\u2019s exactly what will take place this time around, if Republicans shut the government down because they want to continue to gut the health care of everyday Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said President Donald Trump and the Republican Party are \u201cmarching the country\u201d into a government shutdown over their refusal to meet with Democrats and strike a deal to save health care funding from cuts. Jeffries told the Associated Press in an interview late Friday that he remained hopeful Congress […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-505318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n