Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump said Monday he would be “happy” to negotiate a deal on health programs with Democrats, but demanded the federal government first be re-opened, as a crippling shutdown entered its second week. Democrats are refusing to provide the handful of votes the ruling Republicans need to reopen federal departments unless an agreement is reached on extending expiring “Obamacare” health care subsidies and reversing cuts to health programs passed as part of Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
With the government out of money since Wednesday, Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed temporary funding bill for a fifth time on Monday evening. The hard line taken by Democrats marks a rare moment of leverage for the opposition party in a period when Trump and his ultra-loyal Republicans control every branch of government and Trump himself is accused of seeking to amass authoritarian-like powers. With funding not renewed, non-critical services are being suspended. Salaries for hundreds of thousands of public sector employees are set to be withheld from Friday, while military personnel could miss their paychecks from October 15.
And Trump has upped the ante by threatening to have large numbers of government employees fired, rather than just furloughed—placed on temporary unpaid leave—as is normally done during shutdowns. Republicans are digging in their heels, with House Speaker Mike Johnson telling his members not even to report to Congress unless the Democrats cave, insisting any debate over health care be held after re-opening the government. Trump echoed the demand in a social media post Monday evening but appeared to be more open to future negotiations. “I am happy to work with the Democrats on their Failed Healthcare Policies, or anything else, but first they must allow our Government to re-open,” he said on his Truth Social platform.
Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer challenged Johnson to begin health care talks immediately. “If he’s serious about lowering costs and protecting the health care of the American people, why wait?” he said in a post on X. “Democrats are ready to do it now.”
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he signed into law on July 4, would strip 11 million Americans of health care coverage, mainly through cuts to the Medicaid program for low-income families. That figure would be in addition to the four million Americans Democrats say will lose health care next year if Obamacare health insurance subsidies are not extended—while another 24 million Americans will see their premiums double. Republicans argue the expiring health care subsidies have nothing to do with keeping the government open and can be dealt with separately before the end of the year.
As the shutdown begins to bite, the Environmental Protection Agency, space agency NASA, and the Education, Commerce, and Labor departments have been the hardest hit by staff being furloughed—or placed on enforced leave—during the shutdown. The Transport, Justice, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs Departments are among those that have seen the least effects so far, the contingency plans of each organization show.
With members of Congress at home and no formal talks taking place in either chamber, a CBS News poll released Sunday showed the public blaming Republicans by a narrow margin for the gridlock. Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday layoffs would begin “if the president decides that the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere.”
Trump has already sent a steamroller through government since taking office for his second term in January. Spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, 200,000 jobs had already been cut from the federal workforce before the shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.
© 2024 AFP
