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If the Senate reaches a boiling point over the government shutdown on Wednesday Due to fight to prevent families from losing food aidFinally, after a day, some progress was seen.
On Thursday, Democrats appeared willing to talk with Republicans.
“I would say both parties need to think very seriously about the American people,” said Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). Independent,
Democrats still want some kind of strong agreement before Speaker Mike Johnson of the House of Representatives votes to extend the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits for the marketplace.
And Senate Republicans can’t guarantee that can happen.
“You can’t guarantee a presidential veto,” said Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). Independent“You can guarantee that there are quite a few Republicans who are willing to work with him on this.”
Johnson has kept the House out of session for more than a month, arguing that the House did its job when it passed a “clean” resolution to keep the government open without expanding subsidies. that is Some House Republicans, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, also became frustrated. (R-Ga.).
“There’s no point in just going a few weeks,” Tillis said. “They always have the option to go back on this if they prove us wrong, and we are not prepared to work in good faith and seek the administration’s support for any outcome on Obamacare subsidies.”
But Democrats have said they are disappointed that Johnson keeping the House out of session will prevent them from getting anything done.
“I think the fact that the House has been missing for the last five weeks is going to be something the American people are not going to forget,” Bennett said. “I mean their complete abdication of responsibility is shocking. At least the Senate people are coming here every week to see if we can reach a resolution.”
Moreover, many Democrats say the only way to end the shutdown is for President Donald Trump, who visited Asia this week, to lead negotiations.
“They’re not going to go down until Trump tells them to go down,” Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters. “So until you hear something real from Donald Trump, it doesn’t feel like anything is real.”
Murphy also said he wanted a commitment to guard against Trump to prevent him from violating the law.
“You know, a vote that doesn’t help the people of my state, a vote that’s designed to fail is just a guarantee that millions of people in this country will lose health care,” he said. “I’m not interested in Republican talk about free speech. I want provisions in the budget that constrain Donald Trump’s illegitimacy.”
But Republicans say there’s no reason to bring the president into the conversation.
“I don’t expect the president to negotiate right now,” Tillis said. “I mean, we’ve made it clear that he has to come out of shutdown mode before the White House can engage in negotiations. So I don’t think his absence has affected the negotiations one bit.”
So far, Trump has closed the door to conversation With Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
And Republicans agree.
“This has nothing to do with President Trump,” said Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). Independent“This is all benefit to them because they don’t like what President Trump is doing, and they know their base will kill them if they don’t continue to fight.”
Mullin and other Republicans speculated that Democrats would finally relent after next week’s elections in New Jersey and Virginia, a move that Democrats scoffed at.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said, “They were predicting that we would fold, and we were predicting that they would get a spine.” IndependentSen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii was even more dismissive.
“Republicans are saying a lot of things,” he said. Independent as he jumped into an elevator with Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), causing them both to laugh.