(Washington) While a possible federal government paralysis is looming, the Democratic leaders of the Congress require a meeting with President Donald Trump in order to negotiate measures with the Republicans to prevent the closure of government offices by the end of the month.
Senator Chuck Schumer and representative Hakeem Jeffries said on Saturday that the Republicans, on the insistence of Donald Trump, had refused to start negotiations. Democrats are pressure for health programs to be preserved within the framework of any agreement to maintain the government in activity after the financing date of September 30.
“We write to you to demand a meeting concerning your decision to paralyze the federal government because of the republican will to continue undergoing the American health system,” wrote the two New York Democrats.
“The Democrats were clear and consistent in their position,” they added. We are ready to work for a bipartisan agreement on public spending that improves the lives of American families and responds to the crisis in the republican health system. »»
The White House did not react immediately. The congress, controlled by the Republicans, did not address the question of funding before the legislators left the city on Friday for a break.
The House of Representatives approved a republican proposal aimed at maintaining the funding of the federal government until November, but the measure was rejected by the Senate. A democratic proposal to increase health funding has also been rejected.
The Congress and the White House are therefore faced with a dead end which threatens to paralyze the government in less than two weeks, at the expiration of the budget and current financing. Donald Trump’s first term was marked by a month of government paralysis, the longest period in federal history in 2018-2019.
Friday, the president said that the country could close “for a while”. He indicated that the government would continue to “take care” military spending and social security benefits if necessary.
The Republicans insisted that they were not responsible for a possible “Shutdown”, rejecting responsibility for the Democrats.
The president of the House of Representatives, the Republican Mike Johnson, and the head of majority in the Senate, John Thune, proposed this short -term measure, which is a classic means used by the congress to resolve this type of dead end. This would keep government activities at their current level while negotiations are underway.
If the Chamber has successfully adopted the temporary financing measure thanks to a mainly partisan vote in the Senate, the process could require a higher threshold of 60 votes, which means that the support of Republicans and Democrats is necessary.
Democrats work to protect health programs. The Democratic proposal would extend improved health insurance subsidies which were to expire at the end of the year and cancel the Medicaid reductions included in the republican bill on tax loss and public spending reductions, adopted earlier this year.
The Republicans said that Democrats’ requests to cancel Medicaid’s changes were doomed to failure, but they also said it was time to tackle the issue of health insurance subsidies in the coming months.
