Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says Congress could avoid a government shutdown next week if Democrats “dial back” their demands to add hundreds of billions of dollars in new health care spending to a short-term government funding bill.
“I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” Thune told the Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don’t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.”
Thune warned if Democrats don’t back off their demands to add approximately $1.2 trillion in health care-related spending to the government funding bill, “we’re probably plunging forward toward the shutdown.”
Thune also said Democrats shouldn’t be shocked that the White House budget office is directing agencies to use a government shutdown as an opportunity to consider mass layoffs of workers at programs that do not align with President Trump’s priorities.
“Everyone knows Russ Vought,” he said, referring to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is an avowed opponent of deficit spending.
But Thune said Democrats can avoid mass layoffs of federal workers by scaling down their demands for concessions from Trump on health care.
“It’s all avoidable,” Thuen said. “And if they don’t want to go down that path, there’s a way to avoid going down that path.”
Thune said he hopes that eight Senate Democrats will have the courage to buck their party leaders and vote for the clean, House-passed continuing resolution when it comes back to the Senate floor early next week.
“What would eight Democrats be willing to support?” Thune asked. “In terms of a path forward, or at least understanding what that path forward looks like.”
Thune has said he’s willing to address the expiration of enhanced health insurance premium subsidies at the end of this year but has emphasized that spending tens of billions of dollars to extend those subsidies must be discussed in the broader context of reducing waste and fraud under the Affordable Care Act, which is also known as ObamaCare.
Democrats have also demanded a full restoration of the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts made by the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which Trump signed into law in July. Those spending cuts offset the cost of making key corporate tax breaks permanent.
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