US President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Republican leaders are blaming Democrats for a possible government shutdown. Democrats, in turn, believe public opinion is on their side and are seeking concessions on healthcare.
US President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives and Senate issued a simple statement ahead of the government shutdown in Washington: the Democrats are to blame for everything, The Independent reports, writes UNN.
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The US government is running out of money at midnight on Tuesday local time. The US House of Representatives last met two Fridays ago, when Republicans passed a resolution to keep the government running.
"We have disagreements on tax policy, but we don't shut down the government," US Vice President J.D. Vance told reporters after meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
The meeting came after Trump initially canceled a meeting with Schumer and Jeffries, calling them "radical left-wing minority Democrats." After the meeting on Monday, Vance lashed out at the minority party.
"We have disagreements on healthcare policy, but we don't shut down the government," he said. "We don't use our political disagreements as leverage to not pay our soldiers, to not have essential government services functioning. We don't say that your disagreement with a particular tax provision is an excuse to shut down the people's government and all the essential services that come with it."
Republican leaders blame Democrats as the US government heads toward a shutdown on Tuesday.
Democrats, the publication notes, do not have much leverage, given that Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. But, given that the temporary spending bill, known as a "continuing resolution," requires 60 votes to avoid a filibuster, Democrats hope to use healthcare as leverage.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration expanded healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. The Inflation Reduction Act extended these subsidies for another two years. These expanded subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year.
However, Republicans argue that Democrats are acting irrationally and are simply trying to appease their left wing.
"Senator Schumer is afraid he won't be the Democratic leader anymore," Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Independent on Monday.
In March, Schumer faced sharp criticism after joining Republicans to prevent a government shutdown and voting for a continuing resolution. His approval rating plummeted in his home state of New York, and the vote sparked discussions of a possible primary challenge from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2028.
Many Democrats now believe they have a chance to win concessions by focusing exclusively on healthcare, a policy area where they historically have an advantage over Republicans.
"The only reason we're in this situation is because Schumer is trying to save his own skin and is afraid of the left wing," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso told reporters on Monday.
Flirting with a government shutdown is a constant tightrope walk. It almost never leads to the concessions demanded by the party threatening the shutdown, the publication notes.
In 2018, Democrats briefly initiated a government shutdown to get aid for "DREAMers" – a group of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children. Later that year, Trump initiated a government shutdown to secure funding for a wall on the border with Mexico.
But Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, had a simple answer for those who said Democrats would be responsible for a government shutdown this time.
"Get over it," she told The Independent. "We tried to negotiate. I was in a meeting with three of my colleagues where we made it clear that the consensus was a bipartisan continuing resolution that addresses Democratic priorities and also addresses the inability to raid already allocated funds."
Democrats are also confident that public opinion is on their side, citing a Morning Consult poll that showed 45% of voters said they would blame Republicans for a government shutdown, and only 32% would blame Democrats.
Democrats also have to consider that many federal employees in states like Virginia and Maryland, where the majority of votes are for Democrats, would go unpaid in the event of a government shutdown, the publication writes.
"We all want the federal government to stay open, so I support the Democratic proposal that does that, but also creates safeguards against illegal activity by the president," Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) told The Independent.
"So, we all want the federal government to continue to operate, but we don't want to give Donald Trump a blank check to continue his illegal activities and leave a ticking time bomb on healthcare in America, because, as you know, when that bomb explodes, millions of Americans will see their insurance premiums rise," he noted.
But for now, the publication notes, no Democrat wants to explicitly state that they are not against a government shutdown, but they show no interest in supporting the Republican proposal.
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