President Trump Tuesday scrapped a planned meeting with Democratic congressional leaders that had offered hope to avert a government shutdown as soon as next week.
Just a day after agreeing to a sit down this coming Thursday, Trump reversed course and slammed as “unserious and ridiculous” the demands made by Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
“I have decided that no meeting with their congressional leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
Democrats are demanding that Trump dial back cuts to health spending in exchange for their support for a Republican stopgap spending plan to keep the government open past next Wednesday.
Republicans need 60 votes to pass the measure in the Senate, meaning they need several Democratic votes.
Schumer and Jeffries also want Trump to agree not to seek more cuts to spending that has already been allocated, which are called recissions and can be enacted by a simple majority vote in the Senate.
Trump warned of a “long and brutal slog” ahead unless Democrats “become realistic about the things that our country stands for.”
The Democratic leaders accused him of running away from the spending talks, which are a normal feature of passing a spending plan, regardless of which party is in power.
“Donald Trump just cancelled a high stakes meeting,” Jeffries (D-New York) tweeted. “The extremists want to shut down the government because they are unwilling to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating America.”
Schumer (D-New York) said Trump would “rather throw a tantrum than do his job.”
The congressional Democrats haven’t been to the White House since Trump returned to power in January.
Republicans also control both houses of Congress and a conservative supermajority controls the Supreme Court, giving the GOP a rare level of power in Washington.
Democrats believe voters will blame Trump and the GOP for a government shutdown, which will close non-essential services and block salary payments to federal workers and military servicemembers starting on Oct. 1.
Schumer bowed to pressure in March and agreed to provide votes to a similar spending extension.
But Democrats believe they are in a much stronger political position now, with Trump’s approval ratings sagging under the weight of his unpopular planned health cuts and tariffs.
The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year and reverse draconian cuts to Medicaid that were included in Republicans’ big tax breaks and spending cuts bill.