The shutdown fight has left Democrats with few options, and none of them are good.
Faced with President Trump’s refusal to negotiate, they can either cave after weeks of tough talk and support the Republicans’ spending bill, or they can hold firm against it and watch the government shutdown.
The first option is politically fraught, providing an endorsement, however reluctant, of the Republicans’ go-it-alone budget strategy while ensuring a sharp backlash from a l...
Senate
Thune: Democrats need to ‘dial back’ demands to avoid shutdown
Related Video: MASS LAYOFFS Linger, Healthcare CUTS Loom As Leaders Reach IMPASSE On Spending Plan | SUNRISE
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says Congress could avoid a government shutdown next week if Democrats “dial back” their demands to add hundreds of billions of dollars in new health care spending to a short-term government funding bill.
“I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” Thune told The Associated Press i...
Rove: Biggest shutdown loser would be ‘public trust in Washington’
GOP strategist Karl Rove weighed in on the looming government shutdown, saying the American public will lose trust in Washington if lawmakers continue to clash over policy issues, including health care.
"But no matter what, the biggest shutdown loser will likely be public trust in Washington writ large,” Rove wrote Wednesday in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal. “Voters see shutdowns as the result of gross incompetence by our leaders."
He pointed to Pe...
Whole Hog Politics: Gaming out the politics of a shutdown
Washington is almost as bad about abusing truisms as farmers and sports announcers.
And right now, the Washington equivalent of the black bands on a woolly bear caterpillar or “defense wins championships” is this old chestnut: “The party in control of Congress gets the blame for a government shutdown.”
It looks like we are about to find out about that.
The deal to fully fund the federal government reached in March expires at the end of the day Tuesday, a...
Democrats dismiss Trump budget office threats as shutdown edges closer
Democratic congressional leaders are dismissing a threat from the White House budget office to fire masses of federal workers during a government shutdown, saying they will not be intimidated into caving on their demands for talks on extending health care subsidies.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) brushed off the missive from Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as...
White House directs agencies to prep for mass firings ahead of potential shutdown
The White House budget office on Wednesday indicated mass firings could be on the table in the event of a government shutdown as Congress faces a stalemate on negotiations in the days leading up to the government funding deadline.
A memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviewed by The Hill indicates that agencies are directed to “use this opportunity to consider reduction in force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities” under thr...
Why Obamacare Bills May Double Next Year
Extensive subsidies that reduce premium costs for millions are set to expire, unless Congress extends them.
GOP hopes to make potential shutdown as painful for Dems as possible
President Trump and GOP lawmakers are itching to make a potential government shutdown as painful as possible for Democrats as negotiations show few signs of progress with less than a week to go.
Republicans and Democrats have talked past each other for weeks, with each side refusing to pivot from their calls for a seven-week "clean" stopgap package and for protecting Affordable Care Act subsidies, respectively.
But with the high-stakes deadline approaching, ...
Why Obamacare Bills May Double Next Year
Extensive subsidies that reduce premium costs for millions are set to expire, unless Congress extends them.
Democrats knock Trump for ‘running away from negotiating table’ after meeting cancellation
Democratic leaders on Tuesday criticized President Trump for canceling their planned meeting to prevent a governemnt shutdown next week, accusing the White House of "running away from the negotiating table," in the words of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“Trump is running away from the negotiating table before he even gets there,” Schumer said in a statement. “While Americans face rising costs and a Republican healthcare crisis, Trump would rather throw a t...