With a funding deadline just hours away, President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders met at the White House but made little headway. The talks ended in a stalemate, raising the risk of a government shutdown as early as Wednesday.
Both sides walked out blaming each other. If no deal is reached, thousands of federal employees could be furloughed and services from NASA to national parks could grind to a halt, according to Reuters.
“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vice President JD Vance told reporters. Standing with Republican leaders outside the West Wing, Vance called the standoff “preposterous,” adding, “You don’t shut the government down.”
HEALTHCARE FIGHT
The immediate clash is over whether to extend federal funding beyond Tuesday midnight. Democrats insist any short-term bill must also lock in health benefits at risk of expiring. Trump’s Republicans argue the two issues should be kept separate.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the two sides still had “very large differences,” Reuters reported. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries went further, warning that without an extension, 24 million Americans could see health costs soar as Affordable Care Act subsidies expire. “We believe that simply accepting the Republican plan to continue to assault and gut healthcare is unacceptable,” Jeffries said.
Republicans, for their part, say they are open to discussing healthcare — just not inside the stopgap spending bill. “They had some ideas that I actually thought were reasonable, and they had some ideas that the president thought was reasonable,” Vance said, according to Reuters. “What’s not reasonable is to hold those ideas as leverage and to shut down the government.”
HIGH STAKES, FAMILIAR BATTLE
If Congress fails to act, the disruption will be immediate: federal courts could shutter, small business grants delayed, and government workers sent home without pay. Only a handful of agencies have outlined shutdown plans, leaving much of the federal bureaucracy in limbo, Reuters noted.
Budget standoffs are hardly new in Washington. There have been 14 partial shutdowns since 1981, most resolved in days. But Trump’s approach has injected new uncertainty. He has already refused to spend billions approved by Congress and is threatening to expand his purge of the federal workforce if lawmakers fail to meet his terms.
This fight revolves around $1.7 trillion in discretionary spending — roughly a quarter of the $7 trillion federal budget. The rest goes largely to healthcare, retirement programs, and interest on America’s staggering $37.5 trillion debt.
Democrats floated a temporary extension of just a week to buy time for talks. Republicans countered with a funding bill lasting until November 21. After returning to the Capitol, Schumer flatly rejected the shorter deal. Meanwhile, Senate Republican leader John Thune scheduled another vote on the GOP’s plan, even though it has already failed once.
Accoridng to Reuters, the last shutdown, sparked by a border wall fight during Trump’s first term, dragged on for 35 days, the longest in US history. Democrats fear another standoff could hurt them ahead of the 2026 midterms if they are painted simply as anti-Trump. Aides privately worry the public may tune out their healthcare argument unless they sharpen their message.
Republicans, meanwhile, accuse Democrats of what Thune derided as “Trump Derangement Syndrome” — opposing anything the president wants, no matter the substance.
With just hours left, the standoff remains unresolved, the stakes for both parties climbing as the clock ticks toward another government shutdown.
– Ends
With inputs from Reuters