Vance Says Govt. Shutdown Likely After Meeting With Dem Leaders
Republican and Democratic leaders walked out of the White House on Monday without a deal to keep the government funded, setting the stage for a likely shutdown at the end of the week.
The high-stakes meeting with President Donald J. Trump lasted about an hour, but both sides remained entrenched in their positions as the October 1 deadline draws near.
Vice President JD Vance did not mince words afterward. “I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing. I hope they change their mind,” he told reporters.
Vance blasted Democrats’ opening demand in negotiations — a $1.5 trillion package that funneled “hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal aliens for their health care, while Americans are struggling to pay their health care bills.” Calling the proposal “absurd,” he said Republicans had no choice but to resist.
Democrats, however, continue to frame their position as protecting “healthcare access” 15 years after promising Obamacare would fix the system. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) insisted, “Democrats are fighting to protect the health care of the American people, and we are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday America, period.”
Congress faces a midnight deadline on Oct. 1 to pass a short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, to avoid a partial shutdown. The House has already approved an extension, but the measure stalled in the Senate.
Republicans — backed by President Trump — are calling for a “clean” stopgap measure that would fund the government through Nov. 21. Democrats, however, are tying their version to a permanent renewal of Obamacare tax credits and other progressive provisions Republicans have flatly rejected.
After Monday’s meeting, Vance appeared alongside Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought in a show of GOP unity.
Thune pushed back against Democrat accusations that the GOP’s plan is partisan, holding up a copy of the funding bill as proof. He noted it mirrors the short-term measures Democrats themselves advanced when they controlled the Senate — except for additional funding to improve security for lawmakers.
“To me, this is purely a hostage-taking exercise on the part of the Democrats,” Thune said. “We are willing to sit down and work with them on some of the issues they want to talk about, whether it’s an extension of premium tax credits, with reforms, we’re happy to have that conversation. But as of right now, this is a hijacking.”
Neither Jeffries nor Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) took questions from reporters after the meeting. Schumer did claim that Democrats had finally made Trump “hear our objections,” saying: “Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we’ve done this before.”
Vance countered that Democrats are simply trying to leverage the looming shutdown to lock in permanent expansions of the Affordable Care Act first enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m highly skeptical this is a new issue for the president,” he said, noting that Republicans are willing to discuss healthcare reforms — but not under the gun of a shutdown threat.
With Democrats holding out for Obamacare funding, Republicans say the choice is clear: pass a clean bill to keep the government open or let the Left force a shutdown over partisan demands.