The government shutdown enters its sixth day Monday with lawmakers still stuck in their partisan corners and no prospect of a swift resolution.
No one knows when the shutdown will end because neither side is backing down.
“I think it’s just as long as the Democrats want it to go on,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “They have the controlling card right now.”
Republicans insist the only way out of the shutdown is for five more Senate Democrats to vote for the House-passed stopgap spending bill that would fund the government largely at the prior fiscal year levels through Nov. 21.
After taking the weekend off, the Senate will vote on that measure Monday evening for the fifth time.
All prior four attempts, two before government funding ran out Tuesday and two after, fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
SEE ALSO: Senate Democratic leader Schumer plays the Epstein card in shutdown showdown
Most Democrats are blocking that measure to try to pressure Republicans to agree to extend Obamacare premium subsidies. These subsidies were expanded during the COVID-19 emergency but are set to expire before open enrollment begins Nov. 1.
“The only way this will ultimately be solved is if five people sit together in a room and solve it,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Those five people — Mr. Schumer, Mr. Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, and President Trump — met in the Oval Office the day before government funding expired but haven’t talked since the shutdown began.
Mr. Jeffries said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Republicans “have gone radio silent” and are reeling because they are “losing in the court of public opinion.”
A CBS News poll released Sunday found that 39% of the 2,441 respondents blame Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans for the shutdown and 30% blame congressional Democrats. The other 31% blame both equally.
The same poll found that respondents don’t think Republicans’ or Democrats’ positions are worth a shutdown by 22- and 12-point margins, respectively.
SEE ALSO: Trump chides Fox News over shutdown coverage, accuses network of going soft on Democrats
Mr. Trump fired off an angry social media post Sunday at Fox News for giving Democrats a platform to attack Republicans over the government shutdown and trying to be “politically correct.”
“The fake spin is so bad for Republicans that it is hard to believe that we win,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Schumer said the president is not taking the shutdown seriously.
“He’s putting out his memes and his things with the Grim Reaper and all of that stuff,” the Democratic leader said. “He’s playing golf.”
Mr. Thune said Democrats have “a losing hand” because they are taking shuttered government services and furloughed government workers hostage. He said they just like picking fights with the president.
“It’s sort of this blind Trump derangement syndrome,” he said.
Although essential federal services such as defense and law enforcement functions continue, other nonessential programs cease during the shutdown. National parks and federal buildings may be closed or open with limited staff.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day of the shutdown. The law entitles furloughed employees to back pay once the government reopens, and CBO estimates the cost of that would be roughly $400 million daily.
The Trump administration has threatened mass layoffs to save some of that money but has yet to execute such action.
“Anybody laid off, that’s because of the Democrats,” Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday.
Federal agencies, such as the Justice and Housing and Urban Development departments, have banners on their websites blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
The American Federation of Government Employees filed a lawsuit accusing the Education Department of automatically altering employees’ out-of-office message scripts to insert “partisan rhetoric” blaming Democratic senators for the shutdown.
“Employees are now forced to involuntarily parrot the Trump Administration’s talking points with emails sent out in their names,” the largest federal labor union said in the lawsuit filing in federal court in the District of Columbia.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics withheld the release of a vital monthly jobs report Friday because of the shutdown, making it difficult to discern the state of the economy and hiring environment.
Economists say the situation will make it harder for central bankers at the Federal Reserve to decide whether another cut to interest rates is warranted. More broadly, the uncertainty could worsen the expected slowdown in economic growth because of the government shutdown.
In Congress, all eyes are focused on the Senate for a potential breakthrough.
Rank-and-file senators have held bipartisan discussions, which Mr. Thune and Mr. Schumer have encouraged, but nothing has emerged.
The bipartisan talks are focused on potential paths forward for Democrats’ two key demands: extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies and preventing the Trump administration from ignoring congressional spending directives.
Some rank-and-file Democrats have said they are willing to end the shutdown if Republicans provide a concrete path forward for extending the temporary subsidies their party expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
The enhancements, which extended the subsidies to families earning more than 400% of the federal poverty line and capped out-of-pocket premium costs at 8.5% of household income, are set to expire at the end of the year.
Democrats want a resolution before open enrollment for the Obamacare exchanges begins Nov. 1 so insurers have time to adjust premiums. That’s why most Democrats are still pushing for the subsidies to be renewed in the legislation that reopens the government.
“Whatever we do has to give the American people certainty that these tax credits are going to be in place for them to make rational decisions for their families,” said Sen. Michael F. Bennet, Colorado Democrat.
Mr. Jeffries has continued to call for an “ironclad legislative agreement.” He said Democrats can’t trust Republicans to extend the subsidies after working to gut the Affordable Care Act for the past 15 years.
Mr. Thune and Mr. Johnson said they are willing to hold negotiations on the subsidies after the government reopens but cannot commit to an outcome.
Republicans are split on whether to extend the enhanced subsidies at all, but those willing to do so also want changes to protect against fraud. Republicans also are debating whether added provisions are needed to ensure the subsidies don’t indirectly support abortion coverage.
Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday that he wants to make the subsidies “better.” He did not provide details.
“We want to fix it so it works,” he said. “Obamacare has been a disaster for the people, so we want to have it fixed so it works.”
House Republican leaders are keeping their chamber in recess this week to pressure the Senate to pass the stopgap spending bill.
“We passed it, and it’s been rejected by the Senate,” Mr. Johnson told reporters Friday. “So the House will come back into session and do its work as soon as Chuck Schumer allows us to reopen the government. That’s plain, simple.”
Mr. Schumer said Sunday that Mr. Johnson is delaying the House’s return to session for other reasons.
“He is more interested in protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people from the health care crisis,” Mr. Schumer said.
Republican leaders have declined during pro forma sessions over the recess to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who won a Sept. 23 special election to replace her late father, Raul Grijalva.
Ms. Grijalva is set to become the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on a measure to require the Justice Department to release case files on its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes.
Mr. Johnson said Democrats’ suggestion that the House’s prolonged recess is about the Epstein files is just “another red herring.”
“It’s totally absurd,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press. “This has nothing to do with that.”
• Stephen Dinan and Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this report.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.