The two top Democrats in Congress on Saturday demanded a meeting with President Trump ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government, warning him that Republicans would be blamed for a painful shutdown if he refused to negotiate with them.
“It is now your obligation to meet with us directly to reach an agreement to keep the government open and address the Republican health care crisis,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the two minority leaders, wrote in a joint letter to the president. “We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the health care and quality of life of the American people.”
They added: “At your direction, Republican congressional leaders have repeatedly and publicly refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations to keep the government open.”
The letter was sent a day after Senate Democrats blocked the Republican plan to keep federal funding flowing past the Sept. 30 deadline, demanding concessions on health care and other issues in exchange for their support for a short-term spending bill that would keep the government open.
Republicans, in turn, blocked a Democratic proposal that would extend funding through Oct. 31 and add more than $1 trillion to extend Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year and roll back Medicaid and other health program cuts.
Mr. Trump has not met with the Democratic leaders at the White House all year, and it was not clear he had any appetite to do so in this case.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr. Trump appeared resigned to a shutdown. “We’ll continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could very well end up with a closed country for a period of time,” Mr. Trump said. “I don’t know if you can make a deal with these people. I think these people are crazy.”
Senate Democrats have also signaled that there may, in fact, be a shutdown this time around. Unlike in March, when Mr. Schumer and some members of his caucus provided the votes to avert a government shutdown and paid a political price for it, they appear more willing to stand up to Mr. Trump this time.
The last time the president met with congressional leaders ahead of a potential government shutdown, in 2018, what was supposed to be a private negotiating session turned into a televised shouting match. That December, Mr. Trump argued back and forth with Mr. Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, who served as her party’s leader in the House at the time.
“I’ll tell you what: I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck,” Mr. Trump said in 2018. He was vowing to force a year-end government shutdown if Democrats refused to fund a wall between the United States and Mexico, his signature campaign promise. “I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down — I’m not going to blame you for it.”
The impasse back then resulted in a government shutdown that lasted almost a month, the longest in history.