Thune: Dems Need to Dial Back Demands to Avoid Shutdown

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats need to "dial back" their demands to avoid a government shutdown.

"I'm a big believer that there's always a way out," the South Dakota Republican told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.

"And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don't think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there."

But, he said, "we're probably plunging forward toward the shutdown" with Democrats' demands to save healthcare funding from cutbacks.

Republican leaders are ready to call the Democrats' bluff, possibly as soon as this week, with a test vote before the end-of-the-month deadline to keep the government running.

In the past budget battles, it has been Republicans who have been willing to engage in shutdown threats as a way to focus attention on their priority demands. That was the situation during the nation's longest shutdown, during the winter of 2018-19, when President Donald Trump was insisting on federal funds to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

This time, however, Democrats, facing intense pressure from their base of supporters to stand up to Trump and refuse to fund the administration's policies, are taking a tougher position — even if it means halting funds needed to run federal offices.

Behind the Impasse

As deadline for funding approaches next week, Republicans and Democrats remain deeply at odds over how to structure a stopgap bill. Neither side wants to be blamed for a shutdown, but their priorities diverge sharply — complicating compromise.

At the core of the impasse are:

• Healthcare subsidies under the Affordable Care Act: Democrats insist that expiring tax credits must be extended or made permanent. Republicans have refused to include them in their proposed “clean” funding extension, according to the Associated Press.
• Medicaid and other program cuts: Democrats want to reverse recent reductions or avoid further cuts, while Republicans are pushing to sustain tight spending constraints, reported AOL News.
• Length and scope of the extension: Republicans favor a narrow, seven-week continuing resolution limited to existing funding levels, while Democrats want to fold in policy changes or at least negotiate them concurrently, the Associated Press has noted.
• Threats and timing dynamics: The White House has directed agencies to prepare for mass firings in a shutdown scenario, a break from past practice of furloughs, raising tensions and accusations of coercion, according to the Guardian.
• Internal party pressures: Progressives are pressing Democratic leaders not to cave, demanding stronger health-care wins, while Republican leaders must balance conservative demands with the need to secure enough votes to clear the Senate, Time magazine reported.

Because Republicans control both the House and Senate, the onus to negotiate falls largely to them. But without bipartisan support, any extension is Senate-doomed. Democrats are effectively leveraging the looming shutdown to extract concessions, while Republicans are resisting linking policy changes to the funding vote. With time running out, the standoff centers on whether either side will blink first.

Newsmax wires contributed to this report.

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