House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday, ahead of a meeting with President Trump and GOP leaders, that his party will not agree to keep the government open without a solution that addresses rising health care costs.
Mr. Jeffries said he and fellow New Yorker, Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer, and their caucuses are in “lockstep” over their approach, which focuses on continuing the COVID-19 expansion of Obamacare that otherwise expires this year.
“We’re heading into the meeting to have a good faith negotiation about landing the plane in a way that avoids a government shutdown but does not continue the Republican assault on the health care of the American people,” he said.
Congress has until the end of the day Tuesday to pass spending legislation to prevent a government shutdown, but the Democrats’ position makes it nearly certain that it won’t happen.
The Republican leaders — House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota — have said they will continue to insist Democrats support their “clean” continuing resolution, a stopgap bill to extend most current government funding levels and policies through Nov. 21.
The GOP stopgap passed the House earlier this month but was rejected in the Senate, short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Only one Democrat in each chamber backed the GOP measure, which Mr. Thune plans to bring back up for a vote in the Senate on Tuesday.
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“This is a simple, straightforward deal to keep the government running, so for the next seven weeks, we have an opportunity to finish the appropriations process,” Mr. Thune said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
He said Democrats are trying to “hijack” the stopgap bill and load it with “liberal special interest stuff” purely for political reasons.
“They are afraid of their base, and they’re trying to do something to get them motivated and not angry at them,” Mr. Thune said.
Mr. Johnson, appearing Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said Mr. Trump in Monday’s meeting will urge Democrats not to shut down the government over partisan demands.
But Democrats say they’re not going to relent and back the GOP plan.
“We’re not going to simply go along to get along with a Republican bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans who are already living with this Trump economy where costs aren’t going down, but they’re going up,” Mr. Jeffries said.
SEE ALSO: Sen. Ron Johnson pushes bill to end government shutdowns
Democrats’ opening bid for negotiations is a proposal that permanently extends their party’s pandemic-era expansions of Obamacare premium subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, repeals the health section of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill budget law and forces the Trump administration to comply with congressional spending directives.
Mr. Jeffries said Republicans have created a “five-alarm fire” on health care with the “largest cut to Medicaid in American history” in the budget law and their disinterest in avoiding health care premium spikes for tens of millions of Americans who receive the enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
Democrats, he said, will not accept a commitment to negotiate on the Obamacare subsidies at a later date, as Republican leaders say they’re willing to do.
“No one can trust their word on health care,” Mr. Jeffries said. “These people have been trying to repeal and displace people off the Affordable Care Act since 2010. That’s 15 years.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.