Shutdown Appears Inevitable After White House Meeting Ends Without a Deal

A government shutdown appears all but inevitable after congressional leadership emerged from its highly anticipated meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon without a deal in place.

Speaking to reporters at a joint Capitol Hill press conference after returning from the White House, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said they refused to waver on their demands to prevent further recissions and extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that help millions of Americans afford health care.

“We made these arguments very strongly, and the particular focus was on health care,” Schumer said, adding that he believed there was a rift forming between Trump and party leadership. “When we made these arguments, it was clear there was a division, or possible division, between the president and the two Republican leaders. The Republican leaders were almost adamant that they do nothing on rescission, and they just wanted to kick the health care problem down the road.”

Despite Democrats’ repeated entreaties, there was no indication from their Republican counterparts that there was any deal to be made. Vice President JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, in a separate press conference, expressed openness to talks about the ACA subsidies — but said they would only do so after a funding deal had been passed.

In his remarks to reporters, Vance blamed Democrats for using the government funding process as “leverage” to enact policies unrelated to the continuing resolution currently on the table.

“They had some ideas that I thought were reasonable and they had some ideas that the president thought were reasonable. What’s not reasonable is to hold those ideas as leverage and to shut down the government,” Vance said to reporters after the meetings. “I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing.”

Democrats countered by saying vague offers of future talks would not earn their votes.

“We think when they say ‘later’ they mean ‘never,’” Schumer said. “We have to do it now.”

Schumer suggested that Trump seemed more open to a deal during the “candid, frank” discussion, where they discussed the consequences on millions of people facing increases to their health care bills.

“It seemed from his body language and some of the things he said that he was not aware of the ramifications,” Schumer said.

Another proposed idea to avoid a shutdown is a short-term CR to fund the government for seven to 10 days in order to have more time to negotiate — but both sides shut the idea down Monday.

“The House bill is going to be on the table and that’s what we’re going to vote on,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso told reporters. “This is clearly going to be a Democrat shutdown, driven by [Schumer].”

The Senate plans to bring up the CR for another vote on Tuesday, but the lack of progress Monday means there is little chance either side capitulates before a shutdown is set to begin at midnight on Wednesday.