The government shutdown is on track to stretch into next week — and lawmakers are showing no sign of a speedy resolution.
In fact, Democrats and Republicans appear to be moving further apart.
On Friday, lawmakers rejected a pair of spending bills — one written by Democrats, the other crafted by Republicans — that would reopen the government, marking the third time this week that both measures have failed to advance in the upper chamber.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., then promptly sent members home for the weekend, ensuring that the standoff continues into next week and promising that senators will once again vote Monday evening on the same two proposals they’ve already rejected repeatedly.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made his own move Friday, canceling the House’s return next week and rescheduling votes for Oct. 13.
As the deadlock drags on, lawmakers in both parties are digging in on their positions, with potential off-ramps to end the shutdown disappearing.
Part of the problem is that Republicans appear less likely to ever accept an extension of Obamacare subsidies.
That dynamic came into focus on Friday during a joint press conference with Thune and Johnson. The Senate majority leader said he could not promise that Congress would address the looming expiration of Obamacare subsidies at all because he could not guarantee that Republicans would be able to pass such a deal.
“We can’t make commitments or promises on the Covid subsidies because that’s not something that we can guarantee that there are the votes there to do,” Thune said.
He reiterated that he was “open to having conversations” with his Democratic colleagues on that issue but said “that can’t happen while the government is shut down.”
Johnson has maintained that the Obamacare subsidies could be up for debate later in the year, before they expire on Dec. 31. Democrats want to address the tax credits as soon as possible, however, before Americans see their premiums spike and have to make health care decisions in November during open enrollment.
“It is not a December thing. It is not a January thing. It is a now thing,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said Friday.
But Republicans are increasingly unwilling to negotiate until the government is reopened. And if Democrats were looking for some sort of concession that would allow them to support a continuing resolution, Thune’s declaration that Republicans can’t make a promise wasn’t it.
When asked about Thune’s comments, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told MSNBC that the Senate majority leader was “refusing to negotiate before the government shut down” and was now “refusing to negotiate now that the government shut down.”
“The American people aren’t dumb,” Murphy said. “There are no circumstances in which he is willing to negotiate. So that’s the problem, is that they have not been serious about sitting down and talking because they want a shutdown.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was also clear Friday that Democrats want solid commitments on extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies before supporting a continuing resolution, with Schumer suggesting that he doesn’t trust Johnson to make a deal later in the year.
“Johnson and a whole lot of his caucus don’t like the ACA, don’t want to do the extensions,” Schumer said. “A lot of Republican senators in the Senate do, but they’re not enough. Thune is not enough. You need Johnson, and you particularly need Trump, to get it done. So that’s the bottom line.”
Of course, Trump’s reaction hasn’t exactly helped to lay the foundation for a deal. The president has resorted to posting videos depicting Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought as the grim reaper. Plus, the reaction from both GOP lawmakers and the public has only emboldened the Democratic position.
A Washington Post poll conducted Wednesday showed that 47% of the public blames Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, compared to 30% who blame Democrats.
Moreover, the public overwhelmingly supports the Democratic position that the subsidies should be extended. According to a KFF poll released Friday, 78% of the public supports extending the enhanced tax credits.
The Obamacare subsidies have been at the center of the government funding debate. Without an extension, millions of enrollees will receive higher premium rates this month by more than 75% on average, according to KFF. The Congressional Budget Office says 4 million more people would be uninsured by 2034 if the tax credits expire.
A small shot of optimism rang through the Capitol on Wednesday when a bipartisan group of senators was spotted talking on the floor. Those lawmakers later told reporters they were discussing potential escape hatches to reopen the government. But the conversations don’t seem to be resulting in any progress.
“We continue to talk, but that’s the regular in the Senate,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who was part of the Wednesday huddle, told MSNBC on Thursday. “Nothing gets done legislatively unless you work together across the aisles, but our message has been clear and consistent, and that is, ‘Stop the government shutdown,’ and then we can get back to regular order.”
“Nothing happens until the shutdown is over,” he added.
There’s also a real question of whether Johnson would even accept a bipartisan deal crafted by senators. When asked by Scripps News on Friday about the potential for a Senate deal, Johnson wouldn’t commit to putting such an agreement on the House floor, once again maintaining that senators need to accept the House bill.
As the shutdown continues, Trump and the White House are seizing on the situation to scale down the size and scope of the federal government.
Led by Vought, the Trump administration has frozen federal funding and is vowing mass layoffs in addition to the furloughs that typically take place during a shutdown.
Some predicted that those moves by the Trump administration would pressure enough Senate Democrats to support the GOP funding bill and end the shutdown. But the majority of the party — including its leaders — is brushing off those moves, taking away another impetus to end the shutdown.
“They’ve already engaged in mass firings,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on MSNBC Friday morning. “They’ve done this outside of the government shutdown. They’ve already unleashed ICE agents on law-abiding immigrant families. They’ve done that outside of the context of a government shutdown.”
“Enough already,” Jeffries added. “This is who they are. The government shutdown is just a continuation of that effort.”