By SEUNG MIN KIM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has had one chorus in current days when requested concerning the looming authorities shutdown.
Will there be a shutdown? Sure, Trump says, “as a result of the Democrats are crazed.” Why is the White Home pursuing mass firings, not simply furloughs, of federal employees? Trump responds, “Properly, that is all brought on by the Democrats.”
Is he involved about the impression of a shutdown? “The unconventional left Democrats wish to shut it down,” he retorts.
“If it has to close down, it’ll should shut down,” Trump mentioned Friday. “However they’re those which are shutting down authorities.”
In his public rhetoric, the Republican president has been singularly centered on laying strain on Democrats in hopes they’ll yield earlier than Wednesday, when the shutdown may start, or shoulder the political blame in the event that they don’t. That has aligned Trump with Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., who’ve refused to accede to Democrats’ calls to incorporate well being care provisions on a invoice that can hold the federal government working for seven extra weeks.
These dynamics may change Monday, when the president has agreed to host Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Johnson and Thune. Democrats consider the high-stakes assembly means the GOP is feeling strain to compromise with them.
Nonetheless, Republicans say they’re assured Democrats can be faulted if the closure comes. For Trump, the impression would go far past politics. His administration is sketching plans to implement mass layoffs of federal employees relatively than merely furloughing them, furthering their purpose of constructing a much smaller authorities that traces up with Trump’s imaginative and prescient and coverage priorities.
This time, it’s the Democrats making coverage calls for
The GOP’s stance — a short-term extension of funding, with no strings hooked up — is uncommon for a political celebration that has usually tried to extract coverage calls for utilizing the specter of a authorities shutdown as leverage.
In 2013, Republicans refused to maintain the federal government working except the Reasonably priced Care Act was defunded, a stand that led to a 16-day shutdown for which the GOP was broadly blamed. Throughout his first time period, Trump insisted on including funding for a border wall that Congress wouldn’t approve, prompting a shutdown that the president, in an extraordinary Oval Workplace assembly that performed out earlier than cameras, mentioned he would “take the mantle” for.
“I would be the one to close it down,” Trump declared on the time.
This time, it’s the Democrats making the coverage calls for.
They need an extension of subsidies that assist low- and middle-income earners who purchase insurance coverage protection by the Obama-era well being care regulation. Additionally they wish to reverse cuts to Medicaid enacted within the GOP’s tax and border spending invoice this yr. Republican leaders say what Democrats are pushing for is just too expensive and too sophisticated to barter with the specter of a authorities shutdown hanging over lawmakers.
Watching all that is Trump. He has not dominated out a possible deal on persevering with the expiring subsidies, which some Republicans additionally wish to lengthen.
“My assumption is, he’s going to be prepared to sit down down and speak about a minimum of considered one of these points that they’re involved in and pursuing an answer for after the federal government stays open,” Thune mentioned in an Related Press interview final week. “Frankly, I simply don’t know what you negotiate at this level.”
Backwards and forwards on a White Home sit-down
At this level, Trump has proven no public indication he plans to compromise with Democrats on a shutdown, at the same time as he acknowledges he wants assist from a minimum of a handful of them to maintain the federal government open and is prepared to fulfill with them on the White Home.
Final week, Trump appeared to agree to sit down down with Schumer and Jeffries and a gathering went on the books for Thursday. As soon as phrase acquired out about that, Johnson and Thune intervened, privately making the case to Trump that it was not the time in the course of the funding battle to barter with Democrats over well being care, in keeping with an individual aware of the dialog who was not approved to debate it publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity.
Not lengthy after listening to from the GOP leaders, Trump took to social media and mentioned he would now not meet with the 2 Democrats “after reviewing the main points of the unserious and ridiculous calls for being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats.” Republicans privately acknowledge Trump’s resolution to comply with a gathering was a misstep as a result of it gave Democrats fodder to color Trump because the one refusing to barter.
“Trump is actually boycotting assembly with Democrats to discover a answer,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote on the social media website X earlier than Trump reversed course once more and agreed to fulfill with the management. “There is no such thing as a one guilty however him. He desires a shut down.”
It was not instantly clear what led Trump over the weekend to take a gathering he had as soon as refused. Schumer spoke privately with Thune on Friday, pushing the bulk chief to get a gathering with the president scheduled due to the approaching funding deadline, in keeping with a Schumer aide. A Thune spokesman mentioned in response that Schumer was “clearly getting nervous.”
Another excuse why Democrats suspect Trump can be tremendous with a shutdown is how his price range workplace would strategy a closure ought to one occur.
The administration’s technique was specified by an Workplace of Administration and Finances memo final week that mentioned companies ought to take into account a discount in pressure for federal packages whose funding would lapse, will not be in any other case funded and are “not constant” with the president’s priorities. A discount in pressure wouldn’t solely lay off workers but additionally remove their positions, triggering one more large upheaval within the federal workforce.
Jeffries argued that Trump and his high aides had been utilizing the “smoke display of a authorities shutdown brought on by them to do extra injury.”
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Related Press author Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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