Trump’s layoffs and shattered confidence increase Democrats’ stance on shutdown

Senator Patty Murray, a prominent Democrat, criticized the dismissals announced by Trump’s budget official, Russell Vought, as illegal and “nothing new” from an administration that has ignored spending laws since Trump returned to power in January.

“These scammers should not scare anyone,” she said angrily on Friday. “The way we reopen government is compromise, a simple concept that every American understands — and no amount of threats will change that.”

The shutdown is the most acute display of a general lack of good faith on Capitol Hill, where bipartisan deal-making has increasingly fallen out of vogue. Since Trump returned to office in January, he has controlled Democrats and their priorities through executive actions including ordering mass layoffs and cutting billions in spending.

The GOP Congress has mostly ignored Democrats as well, passing a massive partisan spending and tax bill and refusing to sit down with Democratic leaders on funding the government even a day before the deadline.

Democrats see the funding battle as the first real moment of pressure. They have made health care costs, a financial issue they are counting on to resonate with voters before next year’s midterm elections, the focus of their attention.

“They can’t understand having to deal with us,” said Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a member of the Democratic leadership who has previously cut deals with Republicans. “It makes them angry. But it’s not about how we all feel. It’s about doubling insurance premiums for 24 million people.”

Republicans dismissed the Democrats’ efforts as mere political opportunism, saying their real concern was to please a liberal base eager to confront Trump.

“The whole trust thing is just an excuse for them to do bad behavior,” said Markwayne Mullen, a Republican senator from Oklahoma who frequently speaks with Trump. Trump wants to make a deal on health care, “but we’re not negotiating to reopen the government,” Mullen said.

But Democrats say they simply don’t believe Republican leaders in Congress, Trump and especially Vaught, will advance health care reform unless they have to do so. Already this year, Trump has cut and missed tens of billions in spending on Democratic priorities despite Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats. Providing the votes to keep the government open in March.

“Now they’re saying, ‘Trust us again,'” said Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona. “I’m sorry, I’ll never trust Lucy again when I’m trying to kick a soccer ball,” he said in reference to the popular Peanuts meme.

Senate Democrats say they won’t abandon their filibuster blocking the government’s reopening just because of the promise of future talks. They want advance negotiations on their demands — including an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s premium benefits that expire in January.

“The challenge is that when senior White House advisers describe our party as a terrorist organization, it is safe to operate on the assumption that they are not working with a desire to make a deal,” Schatz said.

The Senate has already failed to overcome the Democratic filibuster seven times, and they will try again when senators return to Washington on Tuesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to bring the House back home indefinitely — intended to pressure Democrats into surrender — has only served to infuriate Democrats further, especially since federal civilians are not getting paid and military members risk missing their October 15 pay date.

Trump said on Saturday that his administration had done so Found funding to deliver salaries to US troops on October 15 despite the lockdown, although it was not immediately clear whether there was enough money to pay all troops or whether he had the legal authority to deliver salaries.

On Friday, Ft to publish One line for him X Account: “RIFs have started.” He was referring to reductions in force, which is a way of describing layoffs.

Some moderates, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, are trying – so far unsuccessfully – to negotiate an end to the standoff and open a broader deal on health care and the federal budget.

Cautious Democrats say they’ve been burned before.

Similar negotiations ended a brief pause in a battle over immigration policy in early 2018, but Trump torpedoed a bipartisan agreement weeks later.

Senator Chris Coons of Delaware said that experience, and various other issues, led to a break in trust. “It is very corrosive,” he added.

Also corrosive – contradictory and rapidly changing statements. Trump briefly stumped Democrats when he said Monday that the administration was talking to them and that he wanted to reach a deal on health care — only to later clarify that Democrats must reopen the government first. The administration’s various announcements about stalled projects in Democratic states and threats not to pay federal workers have also led Democrats to hold on rather than acquiesce.

The Capitol corridors have become an endless series of caucuses and news conferences as both sides play the blame game, sometimes on each other’s faces on camera in impromptu brawls.

Republican leaders, like Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, warn that programs that help poor women and their children are running out of money, and that important government functions are at risk because of the Democratic filibuster. Democrats say they are at risk because Republicans and Trump would rather keep the government closed than protect health care for millions.

Schumer has touted polls showing more voters blaming Republicans and Trump, and strong public support for expanding health care subsidies. Most beneficiaries are actually in states Trump won, where millions of them are now receiving notices showing they are facing steep increases in their monthly premiums — in some cases thousands of dollars a month.

behind With their immediate demands for health care, Democrats have other reasons to worry about any Republican guarantees. They have repeatedly asked why they should vote for a spending bill that was negotiated without them and which the Trump administration will not commit to implementing. Trump and Vogt are demanding broad powers to cut spending without Congress, despite laws to the contrary.

If previous lockdowns are any guide, Democrats will eventually capitulate. But they raised the profile of health care, which they plan to take up in next year’s midterm elections, and exposed divisions among Republicans, particularly when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene broke with her party’s leaders and called for health care reform.

On the other hand, some Republicans, including Greene, have begun to raise the issue of using nuclear power in the 60-vote rule passed by the Senate to allow them to bypass Democrats to reopen the government. Republicans changed the rules to speed up Trump’s nominations a few weeks ago, but doing so on the legislation would have profound implications for American politics, with many concerned that such a move could backfire on the GOP.

Johnson raised concerns that the use of nuclear weapons could one day empower socialists, in an appearance on C-SPAN on Thursday. However, he said the idea is under discussion.

“The government shutdown has gotten out of control,” he added.