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President Donald Trump canceled a meeting with top congressional Democrats on Tuesday over “unserious and ridiculous demands” as the deadline to fund the government fast approaches.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., were set to meet with Trump on Thursday to discuss a path forward to avert a partial government shutdown before the Sept. 30 deadline.
Lawmakers are still away from Washington, D.C., this week to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and the Senate is expected to return on Sept. 29. Meanwhile, the House is expected to be out until the deadline passes.
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But Trump nixed the meeting in a lengthy post on his social media platform Truth Social, where he blasted the duo for pushing “radical Left policies that nobody voted for.”
“I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump said.
The now canceled meeting with Trump came on the heels of a letter from Schumer and Jeffries sent over that weekend where the top congressional Democrats laid the possibility of a shutdown on his and Republicans’ feet.
They argued that the Trump-backed short-term extension was “dirty,” which would mean it had partisan policy riders or spending attached to it, and panned it for continuing “the Republican assault on healthcare,” ignoring expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies, and possibly leading to the closure of hospitals and other healthcare facilities across the country.
“With the September 30th deadline fast approaching, Republicans will bear responsibility for another painful government shutdown because of the refusal of GOP congressional leadership to even talk with Democrats,” they wrote at the time.
But Trump argued that their bill would allow for the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts in his “big, beautiful bill” to be repealed, and also blasted the Democratic continuing resolution (CR) for ending his megabill’s $50 billion rural hospital fund.
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“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,” he said.
“I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter,” Trump continued. “They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand. To the Leaders of the Democrat Party, the ball is in your court. I look forward to meeting with you when you become realistic about the things that our Country stands for. DO THE RIGHT THING!”
Schumer and Jeffries last month demanded a meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to strike a deal, given that Thune will need Democratic support in the Senate.
However, that meeting has so far not come to fruition — though Thune has pushed back on Schumer’s characterization and argued that if the Democratic leader wants to talk, it’s on him to make it happen.
“After weeks of Republican stonewalling in Congress, President Trump has agreed to meet this week in the Oval Office,” they said in a joint statement. “In the meeting, we will emphasize the importance of addressing rising costs, including the Republican healthcare crisis. It’s past time to meet and work to avoid a Republican-caused shutdown.”
The last time Schumer went to negotiate with Trump at the White House ahead of a looming deadline in 2018, the government shut down for 35 days, which marked the longest partial closure in history. At the time, Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were at odds with Trump on a deal to fund construction of a wall on the southern border.
Prior to the meeting being announced, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued that if the government shuttered, it “would be the fault of the Democrats.”
“We want a clean funding extension to keep the government open, that’s all we’re advocating for,” she said.
SENATE REPUBLICANS BLOCK DEMOCRATS’ ‘FILTHY’ COUNTEROFFER AS SHUTDOWN DEADLINE LOOMS
However, the House Republicans’ bill is relatively “clean,” save for tens of millions in spending for increasing security measures for lawmakers in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Congressional Democrats’ counter-proposal, which also failed last week, included more funding for member security, but also sought to repeal the healthcare portion of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” claw back billions of canceled funding for NPR and PBS, and permanently extend the expiring ACA credits.
Thune noted last week that CRs “aren’t places to load big health policy changes in.”
“I think that we are open to the conversation about what we do with the ObamaCare premium tax credit,” Thune said. “Is that something in which members, Republican senators, and I think, for that matter, Republican House members, have an interest, as well.”
“But this isn’t the place to do that,” he continued. “This is the place to fund the government, to allow our appropriations process to continue that issue.”
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