Hill Republicans Vow Not to Yield to Dems in ‘Unnecessary, Harmful’ Shutdown Fight

On the first day of the government shutdown, Republicans laid out a simple response to Democrats’ refusal to support a seven-week funding extension—not giving in to any of their demands.

“The sad thing about it is that every single bit of this was entirely avoidable,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters at a Republican press conference, at which he was joined by Senate GOP leadership.

 “Democrats could have worked with us in a bipartisan manner to avert this unnecessary and very harmful shutdown. But instead, they did something that is rather shocking to us. They prioritize taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens over keeping the government open for American citizens,” he said.

On Tuesday night, Democrats—at the direction of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.—denied Senate Republicans the votes needed to consider the bill. Even if all Senate Republicans unite in support of the bill, they still need at least seven Democrat votes to proceed.

There were defections from the Democrat caucus: Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, along with Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada.

Republicans backed the bill nearly unanimously, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who disagrees with extending Biden-era spending, being the only defection. That leaves Republicans needing just five more Democrat votes to reach 60 and keep the government open.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., holding up the text of the seven-week stopgap funding bill that would essentially extend President Joe Biden-era spending levels, made clear on Wednesday he would not entertain Democrats’ demands until the government reopens.

“Does this look partisan? Does this look dirty to you?” he asked, as he raised the slim paper packet. “24 pages to fund the government. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.”

Still, Democrats have made a series of expensive requests in exchange for their votes, including undoing recently passed cost-saving Medicaid reforms, hamstringing the White House’s ability to rescind certain federal funding, and extending expiring Obamacare health care premium tax credits, which were enhanced during the Biden administration.

Republicans see no apparent reason to give in to Democrats’ demands. For one thing, the seven-week continuing resolution simply sets up another fall funding deadline, at which point Democrats will have the same exact shutdown leverage.

“Here’s the simple fact: There isn’t anything we can do to make this bill any better for them. We literally did not put one single partisan provision in the bill,” Johnson said. 

“There’s no policy riders. There’s no gimmicks. Now, we could have done that. I had a lot of colleagues who wanted us to load this up with our priorities, but the leaders decided that we should do this in good faith, simply to buy more time again for the appropriations process to work. That’s all this is. So, there’s nothing to negotiate.”

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left), and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Republicans suggested they would put the bill on the Senate floor over and over again until Democrats back down.

“Today, the Senate is going to vote again and give the Democrats an opportunity to open the government by passing the continuing resolution to give us seven weeks to do the appropriations process to get the government open again,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told the press.

 “That’s what the American people want. It’s what the American people deserve. And today, we’ll see how many Democrats vote with us to end the Schumer shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

For now, the question is how long Democrats can hold out without more members jumping ship. 

The messaging war is likely to intensify, as Schumer said bluntly before the vote Tuesday: “We are making this debate a debate on health care.”

When asked Tuesday how Democrats could maintain this position after a New York Times/Siena poll showed only 2% of registered voters considered health care “the most important problem facing the country today,” Schumer dismissed the polling, insisting, “Without question, wherever we go, wherever we talk about it, [America] has our back on this issue.”

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