Washington (AP) – Democratic and Republican congress leaders go to the White House for a meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday to avoid closing the government, but both sides have hardly shown a willingness to move from their firmly anchored positions.
If the legislation of the government is not passed by the congress and signed by Trump on Tuesday evening, many government offices are temporarily closed across the country, and federal employees are not freed, which increases the burden of the employees and the economy.
The Republicans are daring democrats to vote against laws that would mainly keep the government financing at the current level, but the Democrats have so far held. You employ one of your few leverage to demand that the congress take laws to expand health services.
“The meeting is a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation,” said Chuck Schumer, Democratic Chairman of the Senate, in an interview on Sunday about NBCS “Meet the Press”.
Trump showed little interest in the demands of the Democrats in health care, even when he agreed to hold a seat assembly with Schumer together with the majority leader of the Senate, John Thune, the spokesman for the House, Mike Johnson and the Democratic Fi from House, Hakeem Jeffries. The Republican President repeatedly said that he was fully awaited the government this week.
“If it has to be closed, it has to close,” said Trump on Friday. “But they are those who close the government.”
The Trump government has attempted to pressure democratic legislators to withdraw from their demands and warned that federal employees could be permanently released in the middle of a financing loss.
“Chuck Schumer said a few months ago that a government’s closure would be chaotic, harmful and painful. He is right, and that’s why we shouldn’t do it,” said Thune, a Republican in South Dakota, on Sunday about “meet the press”.
Nevertheless, the Democrats argued that Trump’s agreement to hold a meeting shows that he feels the pressure to negotiate. They say that the Americans usually blame them for every shutdown because the Republicans control the White House and the Congress.
However, in order to adhere to their negotiation negotiations, the Senate Democrats will probably have to vote against a legislative template to temporarily extend the government’s financing a few hours before closing – an unpleasant position for a party that has long been denounced as senseless and destructive.
The law has already passed the house controlled by Republicans and would finance the government for seven weeks, while the congress is working on annual expenditure laws.
Any legislation to finance the government needs support from at least 60 senators. This means that at least eight Democrats would have to vote for the brief -term financing law, since the Republican Senator Randrand Paul von Kentucky is expected to vote against it.
During the last potential closure of the government in March, Schumer and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and to enable a final vote by Republicans. The New York Democrat was in his own party with violent counter -reactions for this decision, and some even asked him to step down as a democratic leader.
This time Schumer appears determined.
“We hear from the American people that they need help in health care, and as far as these massive layoffs are concerned, they advise what? Simple answer with a move in: they do it anyway,” he said.
Democrats are pushing for an extension of the Affordable Care ACT control credits that have subsidized health insurance for millions of people since Covid 19 pandemic. The credits that are to expand the cover for people with low and medium -sized incomes will expire at the end of the year.
Some Republicans are open to the extension of the tax credits, but want changes. Thune said on Sunday that the program “is urgently needed to reform” and want to address the Republicans “waste, fraud and abuse”. He urged the Democrats to vote for the Finance Act and to accept the debate about tax credits at a later date.
It remains to be seen whether the meeting of the White House will aid or violate the chances of a solution. Negotiations between Trump and democratic congress leaders rarely went well, and Trump had little contact with the opposing party in his second term.
Trump ended the recent negotiations in August between Schumer and the President to speed up the pace of confirmation of the Senate for administrative officials that he asked Schumer in a social media contribution “Zur Hölle”.
Trump also abruptly canceled a meeting that was planned last week with the leaders of the congress and described the demands of the Democrats as “unsightly and ridiculous”.
Schumer argued that the White House to move a meeting for Monday, showed that “they felt the heat”.
