Copyright talkingpointsmemo
Emboldened by Tuesday’s Election Night wins for Democratic candidates and causes across the nation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Wednesday renewed their request for a meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss the ongoing shutdown — which is on its 36th day, now making it the longest government shutdown in U.S. history “We write to demand a bipartisan meeting of legislative leaders to end the GOP shutdown of the federal government and decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote in a Wednesday letter to Trump, Politico reported. Democrats, of course, have been demanding a meeting with the president and congressional GOP leadership for weeks as they haven’t met to discuss potential avenues to end the shutdown since their meeting in late September. “White House Republicans are refusing to hold negotiations with the Democrats. No one in the White House has had a single meeting with anyone in Congress. That is unheard of,” Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress, told TPM. Although some rank-and-file bipartisan talks have recently picked up, the Senate has been in a deadlock on reopening the government — largely due to Republican leadership’s refusal to come to the table and listen to Democrats’ requests to extend Obamacare subsides, despite needing a handful of Senate Democrats’ votes to reopen the government. Congressional Republican leadership have been insisting they will only negotiate the ACA subsidies after Democrats vote in favor of the GOP continuing resolution (CR) to reopen and temporarily fund the government. “The American people understand this issue. They understand Republicans’ refusal to sit down and negotiate,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I- VT) told reporters in the Senate basement Tuesday. “Always — people sit down and negotiate. They’re refusing to do that. The American people got it. The American people know that their health care … is at stake. So if the Democrats cave on this, I think, will be a betrayal to millions and millions of working families who want them to stand up and protect their health care benefits.” Schumer, along with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and 26 other Senate Democrats also sent a letter to the Trump administration on Tuesday slamming Republicans for refusing to even entertain a potential deal to reopen the government and also concretely address the “health care affordability crisis.” Some Democrats like Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Sanders — who want Dems to hold the line and refuse any agreement that doesn’t involve actual negotiations on the expiring Obamacare subsidies and other health care-related issues — are also pointing to the success of Election Night as a sign for Democrats to keep fighting. Murphy said Tuesday night’s victories should “give Democrats confidence that the American people have our back as we engage in the fight to protect people’s health care and save our democracy,” Punchbowl reported. Senate Democrats who want to hold the line also point to the gaps in the negotiations between a bipartisan group of rank-and-file senators who are trying to come up with a deal to reopen the government that reportedly developed some momentum this week. The deal would reportedly involve a package of appropriations bills alongside a new CR and a vote to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies. But a promise of a floor vote does not mean that a bill addressing the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies would actually succeed in the GOP-controlled Senate. “An agreement to take a vote that Republicans are guaranteeing will fail doesn’t sound like an outcome that helps regular Americans,” Murphy told reporters on Tuesday. “I understand that negotiations are ongoing but a failed vote doesn’t solve the problem,” Murphy added. “And the problem is pretty extraordinary — rates going up by, in some cases, double on 22 million Americans.”
