Partisan finger-pointing intensified as the government shutdown stretched into its fifth day on Sunday, with Democrats and Republicans digging in and offering little hope for a swift resolution.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats could vote to “turn the lights back on” but instead refuse to engage in a serious conversation about the House-approved, seven-week stopgap bill.
The Louisiana Republican also said that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer is backing more than a trillion dollars in new spending — and even the government shutdown — not out of principle, but self-preservation.
According to the House speaker, Mr. Schumer is trying to shield himself from pressure on the party’s left, where some progressives are pushing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York to challenge him in the 2028 Democratic primary.
“They’re doing this to get political cover because Chuck Schumer is afraid that he won’t win his next reelection bid in the Senate because he’s going to be challenged by a Marxist in New York,” Mr. Johnson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune piled on, saying Mr. Schumer “instigated this at the behest of a bunch of far-left, liberal interest groups.”
“Right now [Democrat] leadership is stuck, because these left-wing special interest groups are so adamant in their desire to fight President Trump, it’s sort of this blind Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Mr. Thune said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures.
Meanwhile, Democrats shared a different story.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans “have gone radio silent” since meeting with Democrats early last week and are reeling because they are “losing in the court of public opinion.”
Mr. Jeffries said Democrats are pushing to save health care for millions by fighting to extend the enhanced COVID subsidies for Obamacare, which are set to expire at the end of the year, and to undo future cuts to Medicaid that were included in Mr. Trump’s signature “big beautiful bill.”
“Tens of millions of American taxpayers are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles,” the New York Democrat said on “Meet the Press,” adding that Republicans are “lying” when they insist Democrats want to provide health care to illegal immigrants.
“Now, federal law clearly prohibits the expenditure of taxpayer dollars to provide health care to undocumented immigrants. Period, full stop. And no Democrat on Capitol Hill is trying to change that law,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Still, others have noted that some illegal immigrants — including those here in Temporary Protected Status, as well as some asylum seekers and those granted parole — may qualify for certain health benefits.
Republicans maintain that their “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 21 is the best path to reopen the government and allow more time for negotiations over healthcare.
The proposal needed the support of eight Democrats to overcome the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate, but only three Senate Democrats voted for the GOP stopgap measure last week.
Mr. Schumer has warned that the stalemate will continue as long as Republicans refuse to sign off on a bipartisan deal that addresses Democrats’ health care concerns.
The Democratic plan includes $1.5 trillion in health care and other spending that Republicans signal is a nonstarter.
Democrats also accused House Republicans of skipping town to avoid votes on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and confirming Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who was elected to fill the seat of her late father, Rep. Raul Grijalva.
Mr. Johnson said that the accusation is “totally absurd.”
“It’s another red herring,” he said. “The reason the government is closed is that Chuck Schumer and 43 of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate have decided now to vote multiple times to keep the government closed.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.