The News
Some Senate Democrats left town on Thursday optimistic about finding a deal to end the government shutdown. Others said their party needs to stiffen its spine to make sure it prevails on objectives Democrats laid out a month ago.
“Right now, there’s some hand waving, but I haven’t seen a path that moves us toward restoring health care for millions of Americans,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told Semafor. “I don’t need a show vote. We need millions of Americans to be able to afford their health care.”
There’s been a flurry of talks over the past 48 hours about year-long spending bills that could pave the way to an end to the 30-day shutdown, but there’s no sign that Republicans are willing to budge on negotiating the substance of a health care deal or to consider those spending bills until Democrats vote to reopen the government. President Donald Trump won’t break the impasse until the government reopens, either.
That leaves Democrats on course for a possibly painful split when there is a bipartisan agreement to end the shutdown. It is almost sure to fall short of Democrats’ goals of restricting Trump’s unilateral spending cuts and finding a permanent solution for expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“I know I sound like a broken record, I’m sorry: I support reopening the government without giving Donald Trump a blank check and preventing the health care crisis,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. “We’ll have to have full discussions in our caucus about the way forward.”
Three key centrist senators — independent Angus King of Maine and New Hampshire Democrats Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan — met with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday morning as Senate Majority Leader John Thune huddled with Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala.
It was the type of movement that often presages a bipartisan deal. So too was the participants’ silence following the private huddle: King declined comment and Shaheen offered that “we’re talking. I’m not going to say anything else.”
Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who is among the Democrats meeting about the shutdown, said three times in a row that “the pace of bipartisan discussions is a good sign.”
And some Democrats aren’t happy that the Senate isn’t staying in session. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., blocked a motion to adjourn the chamber for the weekend on Thursday afternoon because “Senate Republicans want to go home for another weekend and do nothing.” But Republicans quickly overcame her objections and the Senate went home.
In this article:
Know More
The shutdown talks are in a delicate place for Democrats. Other than a handful of defections, Schumer has kept his party mostly united during the painful funding lapse. But as optimism grows that discussions on appropriations bills could dig the Senate out of the shutdown, Democrats seem headed for a divide over what it will take to reopen the government, let alone what they’ll be willing to swallow in order to vote to end it.
Take the talks on full-year appropriations bills, which could grease the Senate floor for a compromise three-bill package with the House and potentially another package of funding bills. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., who sparred with Thune on Wednesday over expiring SNAP benefits, acknowledged that the Senate’s spending honchos were making good progress but that the upper chamber can only do so much on its own.
“Nothing that passes the Senate that needs to get to the president can get to him without House Republicans back,” Lujan said. “President Trump needs to pull everyone into that room and not let them out until they come up with an agreement.”
But others think that the work is important to rebuild the chamber’s flagging bipartisan muscles — even if the two parties aren’t there yet on a full agreement to reopen the government, address the health care subsidies, and set the stage for Congress to finally put its own imprint on the spending process.
“Sometimes you just have to keep doing a bunch of different things that seem extraneous, but they all become part of the fabric of what a final agreement can look like. It’s creating trust. And the conversations lead to compromise,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. “It is important for building that foundation of respect and trust.”
Room for Disagreement
Thune basically says he’s done everything he can for Democrats. He’s offered a vote on Affordable Care Act subsidies, a negotiation with Trump, and deal-making on spending bills. These all come with an important catch: after the government reopens. That essentially limits the universe of Democrats who can support anything.
“We’ve got to reopen the government. Then we’ll have a normal appropriations process,” Thune said. “I don’t think we can afford to have … the government shut down any longer.”
Burgess’s view
Democrats are tired of the shutdown, some seem ready to end it. But not quite yet.
Keep your eye on the calendar: This weekend contains painful benefit cuts and rising insurance premiums. Off-year elections conclude on Tuesday — the same day this government shutdown matches the 35-day funding fight of Trump’s first term. And a recess is scheduled to start on Nov. 7.
Thune isn’t forcing as many votes on the House-passed continuing resolution. And he and Schumer are meeting with key senators. I can’t tell you when it will end, but all of these things signal deal-making mode.
Notable
- More Americans blame Trump and the Republican Party for the shutdown than blame Democrats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.