Government shutdown live updates: White House says federal layoffs are 'imminent'
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stood firm this morning on his party’s insistence that a government funding bill must address extending Affordable Care Act subsidies before they expire at the end of the year.
Asked if Democrats will go crawling back to Republicans if the government shutdown lasts for several weeks, Schumer said, “No.”
Democrats plan to launch a messaging effort to convince Americans that their move to reject a so-called clean funding bill, which would keep spending at current levels and not extend the subsidies, is legitimate.
“They’ve tried twice to get us to vote for their bill, which does nothing to protect Americans’ health care,” Schumer said. “We are going to be fighting everywhere, on TV stations like yours, in the social media, in picketing, in protesting, in emails, in every way.”
He said his party is “going to be pointing out it’s the Republicans who did it. And we’re also going to be pointing out that we asked them three times to vote on extending the ACA credit, which would make this all better, and they voted no three times.”
Schumer slammed Republicans for spreading the false claim that Democrats are trying to give undocumented immigrants access to federal health care benefits, which is against the law, calling it “a total, absolute effing lie.”
Democrats are ready to sit down with Republican leaders “and negotiate a good deal that protects Americans from the health care crisis, and we’re ready to do that right away,” he said.