Democratic leaders in US Congress demand talks with Trump to avert shutdown

With funding ending in 10 days, Democrats want a deal that will extend Obamacare subsidies and reverse Medicaid cuts.

Leading Democrats are demanding a sit-down with United States President Donald Trump to avoid a looming government shutdown when the current budget year ends at the end of this month.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his counterpart in Congress, Hakeem Jeffries, addressed a joint letter to Trump on Saturday, accusing him of wanting a shutdown so he could “gut the healthcare of the American people”.

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“We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the healthcare and quality of life of the American people,” said Schumer and Jeffries in their letter, published on the latter’s website.

The Republican-dominated Congress had approved a short-term funding bill that would have kept funding flowing to the federal government until November, but it was rejected by the Senate on Friday before lawmakers left town for a weeklong break.

With funding set to expire on September 30, Trump indicated on Friday that there could be “a closed country for a period of time”, saying that the government would still take care of the military and Social Security payments.

“Republicans will bear responsibility for another painful government shutdown because of the refusal of GOP congressional leadership to even talk with Democrats,” said Schumer and Jeffries.

The president, they said, had an “obligation to meet with us directly”.

‘Go-to-hell mode’

Democrats are pushing to make enhanced Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year permanent, a move that the Congressional Budget Office projects would cost $350bn over 10 years. They also want to reverse Medicaid cuts from earlier this year.

Schumer and Jeffries said that if their desired reforms were not enacted, tens of millions of US citizens could see their healthcare costs increasing by thousands of dollars per year and face the very real risk of bankruptcy.

“We are ready to work toward a bipartisan spending agreement that improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis,” they said.

The letter described the Trump administration’s assault on healthcare, including Medicaid and Medicare cuts, the end of Obamacare subsidies, “skyrocketing premiums”, “attacks on medical research”, a “suppression of vaccine availability”, and the closure of hospitals, nursing homes and local clinics.

On Friday, Schumer had said on Facebook that Trump was in a “go-to-hell mode”. “His marching orders to Republicans … don’t even bother with Democrats. That’s not governing. That’s a recipe for a shutdown,” he said.