Senate Democrats blocked a bill to end the government shutdown for the sixth time on Wednesday, as the funding freeze enters its second week and there is little progress toward a solution.
Senators voted 54-45 for the Republicans’ “clean” stopgap package that would fund the government through the end of November. It took 60 votes to advance.
Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Angus King (I-Maine) and John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted with Republicans, but for the fifth time no other members of the Democratic caucus joined them.
King said Wednesday he would continue to vote for the GOP stopgap bill out of fear of the power the White House could wield in a shutdown.
“The power that the President and OMB and Vought and Miller are wielding under the shutdown is a real threat to our country, so I will continue to try to end the shutdown,” he said.
“I would love to resolve this ACA thing,” he added, referring to Democrats’ call to extend expiring Affordable Care Act premium subsidies. “I think it’s important, I think it can be, I think it should be. Republicans should get involved and help us do this. But in the end, we have to get this shutdown behind us because I think the worst is yet to come.”
Democrats continued to push for talks to extend health care subsidies past the year-end deadline, but Republicans pushed them back, saying those talks couldn’t happen until the government returns to power.
“I know this story is getting old. They’re trying to find new angles, but it’s the same thing [thing] – The conversation will happen when we open the government,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) reiterated to reporters. “Nothing has changed.”
The vote followed another vote on Democrats’ continuing resolution that would permanently extend the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits. This vote also failed from a party political perspective with 47 votes to 52.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to blame the Republican Party for its refusal to find a solution in these negotiations.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in his speech: “The government is closed for one reason: Donald Trump and the Republicans would rather throw 15 million people off health insurance and raise premiums for tens of millions of Americans by thousands and thousands of dollars a year than sit down and work with Democrats to improve health care.”
