Republican leaders reject Democratic health care demands for bill to avoid shutdown

Key Points

• Republican leaders have firmly rejected Democratic calls for health care subsidy extensions as part of a stopgap spending bill needed to prevent a government shutdown.
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune emphasized that Democrats will face a difficult choice of either working with Republicans or risking a government shutdown, which would begin on October 1.
• House Republicans are proceeding with a spending measure to fund federal agencies through November 21, while Democrats plan to present an alternative proposal.
• The situation is further complicated by former President Trump's dismissive remarks about negotiating with Democrats, which they believe could shift blame onto the Republicans should a shutdown occur.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders in the House and Senate said Wednesday that they will reject Democratic demands for an immediate extension of health care subsidies, challenging Democrats to vote against a stopgap spending bill that doesn't include them but will keep the government open at the end of the month.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Democrats “have a choice to make” as the Sept. 30 deadline approaches. They can work with Republicans, Thune said, or “they can shut down the government with all that will mean for the American people.”

The House could vote as soon as Thursday on a Republican stopgap measure to keep federal agencies funded through Nov. 21, buying lawmakers more time to work out their differences on spending levels. Republicans argue they are providing exactly what Democrats have insisted upon in past government shutdown battles — a clean funding bill free of partisan policy riders.

But Democrats said it wasn't enough, releasing a counterproposal late Wednesday even as Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson said they wouldn't consider it. The Democratic proposal would extend subsidies for low- and middle-income individuals who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and reverse Medicaid cuts that were included in Republicans' “big beautiful bill” enacted earlier this year.

“We will sit down and negotiate if they will sit down and negotiate,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “We don’t have a red line, but we know we have to help the American people.”

Republicans will need at least seven Democrats to vote with them to pass the short-term measure. Without Democrats, Schumer said, “they're going to end up shutting down the government.”

It’s a high-stakes game of brinksmanship for the Democrats, in particular, as the party’s base urges them to fight harder and many wager that a shutdown would force Republicans to negotiate with them on health care and other issues. If the government does shut down on Oct. 1, most federal agencies will close and millions of federal employees deemed non-essential, including many in the military, won’t receive paychecks. And there’s no guarantee that the two parties could find agreement on how to end the standoff.

Democrats on both sides of the Capitol are watching Schumer closely after his last-minute decision in March to vote with Republicans to keep the government open. Schumer argued then that a shutdown would be damaging and would give President Donald Trump and his White House freedom to make more government cuts. Many on the left revolted, with some advocates calling for his resignation.

The vote in the spring also caused a temporary schism with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who opposed the GOP spending bill and said he would not be “complicit” with Schumer’s vote.

The two Democratic leaders now say they are united, and Schumer says that things have changed since March. The public is more wary of Trump and Republicans, Schumer says, after the passage of Medicaid cuts.

Democrats' top demand has been an extension of the health care tax credits that expire at the end of the year. Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson have indicated that they are open to extending the subsidies, which made health insurance more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. But many Republicans would like to see changes that Democrats are likely to oppose, and both Thune and Johnson have made clear that they need more time to work on the issue.

“They’re trying to insert unrelated matters into the middle of a clean government extension. And I don’t think that’s going to work,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on CNBC Wednesday morning.

The GOP bill would generally fund agencies at current levels, with a few limited exceptions, including an extra $88 million to increase security for lawmakers, the Supreme Court and members of the executive branch. The proposed boost comes as lawmakers face an increasing number of personal threats, with their concerns heightened by last week’s assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

The Democratic alternative introduced by Schumer on Wednesday would include more than $180 million for congressional security and another $140 million for the Supreme Court and other federal courts.

Trump, so far, has been dismissive of the Democrats’ threats of a shutdown, saying last week to not “even bother” negotiating with them.

“If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it,” Trump said.

Democrats have tried to use those words against him and insist the president would take the blame if the government shuts down.

“Unless he’s forgotten that you need a supermajority to pass a budget in the Senate, that’s obviously his signal he wants a shutdown,” said Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat.

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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.