WAsHINGTON — For the 12th time, senate Democrats blocked the Republican Party's government funding legislation this week without a single senator switching his or her vote.
Just three Democratic caucus members voted for the bill: John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.; and Angus King, I-Maine. That means Republicans are still five votes short of the 60-vote threshold to ensure passage of the bill, just as they have been since before the government shut down more than three weeks ago.
senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-s.D., told NBC News he’s taken aback by some of the Democratic posturing and rhetoric.
“I’m surprised at how open they’ve been about it,” Thune said in an interview Thursday. “That statement yesterday by that House member that they know the American people are going to suffer but this is their leverage? This isn’t about leverage. This isn’t a political game. It’s about people’s lives.”
He was referring to House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., who said in a recent Fox News interview: “shutdowns are terrible. Of course, there will be families that are going to suffer. We take that responsibility very seriously. But it is one of the few leverage times we have — it is an inflection point in this budget process where we have tried to get the Republicans to meet with us and prioritize the American people.”
Democrats have used that “leverage” to push Republicans to extend Obamacare subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. Failing to do so would lead to increased health care costs for millions of people. Republicans say Democrats must first reopen the government, but, so far, the party hasn’t budged.
The Democratic Party’s hardened resolve in the shutdown battle seems to have left the Republican majority without answers.
“I think the Democrats at some point have got to come to the conclusion, at least enough of them, reasonable ones, to say that this is not a sustainable position for us,” Thune said.
Asked to respond to Thune, Clark said in a statement Thursday that her Republican critics were taking her remarks “out of context to suggest that, somehow, they are not responsible for the shutdown of a government they control.”
“Democrats are ready to negotiate on a budget that reopens the government and protects health care,” she said.
Hours later, Democrats again filibustered a GOP-written bill to pay federal workers who are required to work during the shutdown, a move designed to pressure the minority party.
Democrats said it does nothing to address their demands to prevent health care cost increases and argued that the bill would let President Donald Trump “weaponize” the shutdown and “pick and choose” which of his favored employees get to be paid. They offered an alternative to pay all workers.
Democratic voters had pressured their party to take a more confrontational posture toward Trump in the shutdown battle. The new stance may be paying off with the party’s base.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted June 5-9 found that just 41% of Democratic voters approve of how Democrats in Congress are handling their job. A new Quinnipiac poll taken Oct. 16-20 found that number rising to 58% among self-identified Democrats.
GOP leaders have faced some calls internally to abolish the filibuster and pass legislation to fund the government without Democrats, but sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, conceded that he hasn’t made progress in persuading colleagues to do so.
That means they still need Democratic votes to reopen the government — and are running out of answers to get them.
sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Trump should get more involved, as some Democrats have called for.
“We do need the president. We should be going to the president and saying, sir, this is what we’re proposing. We need you to back it,” she said. “There has not been an effort to say this is how we end the shutdown on a bipartisan basis because that’s what it’s going to take. ... People want to know how I feel about getting rid of the filibuster. No, that’s not how we end a government shutdown.”
sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, which oversees government funding, said it’s “really important” that Republicans understand they can’t take Democratic votes for granted.
“We have to work bipartisan on bills like this,” she said. “They can’t send us a partisan-only bill and expect us to say, ‘Oh, OK.’”
Other Democrats say they don’t trust GOP leaders when they say they’ll engage in a discussion about addressing the expiring health care subsidies after the government is reopened.
“The speaker of the House has referred to the ACA health care tax credits as a boondoggle,” said sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., referring to the Affordable Care Act. “To me, that betrays what is really in his mind and heart, which is he wants to do away with them. I don’t trust Republicans when they say, ‘You concede, open the government, and then we’ll talk about it.’ That’s just talk.”
Fetterman pleaded with his colleagues to open the government and address health care afterward.
“We have to chew gum and walk at the same time. And it’s like, right now, we’re not getting anything,” he said. “I sure am tired of the blame game. I just want to open up this thing. Common sense would say we can open it up and figure out a way forward.”
Meanwhile, there's an expiration date on the House-passed Republican bill to fund the government: Nov. 21. That date is becoming “more and more irrelevant,” said sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas — now that Congress has burned nearly half that time without having made any progress toward full appropriations bills that would keep the government open through next fall.
“We’re going to have to do something else at some point,” Cornyn said. “And I know there’s been some discussion about a long-term continuing resolution. None of that’s been worked out.”
Cornyn also tore into Democrats.
“They don’t care about the seniors who are homebound and who depend on telehealth in order to get access to health care, which services are no longer available,” he said. “so I think it’s reprehensible, and there’s no defense for it, other than sen. schumer trying to save his political skin.”
shortly after the failed vote Thursday on paying workers, the senate left town for another three-day weekend.
