(Washington) Several American elected officials said they were “open to discussion” on Sunday on the eve of a meeting between the Democratic opposition and Donald Trump to avoid budgetary paralysis.
Congress has until Tuesday to adopt a budget, even temporary, and thus avoid paralysis of the federal state.
Donald Trump is “open to discussion” and “wants to act in good faith”, assured the Republican president of the lower room, Mike Johnson, Sunday on the Fox News channel.
However, he did not answer explicitly to the question of whether negotiations between the two parties, currently engaged in an showdown, will take place during the meeting scheduled for Monday.
The Republican President has already canceled a first meeting with the Democratic opposition which should have been held last week.
“This meeting is a first step, but (…) We need serious negotiations,” said Chuck Schumer, chief of the Democrat minority in the Senate on Sunday during an interview with NBC.
“We want to find a Bipartisan common ground (…) which really meets the needs of the American people on health, security, and economic well-being,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the chief of the Democrat minority in the House of Representatives.
“I hope we will avoid the” Shutdown “,” he added on Sunday during an interview on the ABC channel.
The Republicans have the majority in the two chambers of the Congress, but due to the Senate regulations, Donald Trump’s party must negotiate with the Democrats to obtain at least seven of their votes.
Democrats, in particular, demand that the Republicans restore hundreds of billions of dollars in health expenditure.
The conservatives, for their part, argue that their spending plan for seven weeks, funding the government until the end of November, is the only one on the table.
In March, when the threat of paralysis already hovered, the Republicans had refused to initiate dialogue with the Democrats on huge budget cuts and the dismissal of thousands of civil servants.
Ten Democratic senators, including Chuck Schumer, had then reluctantly decided to vote for the text of the Republicans, in order to avoid the paralysis of the federal state.
A budgetary paralysis would mean that a large part of the federal services would be stopped, with hundreds of thousands of unemployed officials, upset air traffic, but also strong disruption in the payment of social assistance.
According to the American press, the White House envisages massive and permanent dismissals in government agencies if the congress cannot vote a budget by September 30.
