By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There’s less than one week remaining before funding lapses and the federal government shuts down- if there’s no deal in Congress by 11:59pm Tuesday.
Lawmakers left town last Friday after a Republican funding proposal cleared the House but failed in the Senate. Members of Congress will return on Monday with just one day to pass a short-term spending bill — known as a continuing resolution, or C.R. — to keep the lights on.
Republicans argue their proposal is a routine, clean C.R., but Democrats say the bill is not bipartisan and are fighting to include healthcare protections.
“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive. They are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States unless they can have over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens (A monumental cost!), force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors, have dead people on the Medicaid roles, allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits, try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World, allow men to play in women’s sports, and essentially create Transgender operations for everybody,” said President Trump in a lengthy Truth Social post on Tuesday.
“I look forward to meeting with them if they get serious about the future of our Nation. We must keep the Government open, and legislate like true Patriots rather than hold American Citizens hostage, knowing that they want our now thriving Country closed. I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter. They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand,” Trump’s post went on to say.
Democrats say they’re determined to keep fighting to protect health care.
“We’re just five days away from a government shutdown because Republicans have decided that they don’t want to fund the government in a bipartisan way and are determined to continue to gut the health care of the American people,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY.) on Thursday. “Because of the Republican refusal to address the Affordable Care Act tax credit issue, at least 20 million Americans are about to experience dramatic increases in their healthcare premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Medicare is facing a $536 billion cut at the end of the year, if Congress doesn’t take action because of the Republican one big ugly bill.”
The White House Budget Office, on Wednesday, threatened mass firings if a government shutdown happens. In a memo to federal agencies, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructed them to target programs they are not legally required to continue.
“They want to continue to fire civil servants who are hardworking American taxpayers,” said Jeffries. “We will not be intimidated by these threats coming from the most extreme parts of the Trump administration.”
