Lawmakers are laying the groundwork for making sure the other party gets the blame in the event of a government shutdown at the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As both sides work out a game plan for funding the government before a Sept. 30 deadline, lawmakers have increasingly been trading insults and pointing fingers over who would be at fault if the lights go out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In remarks from the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.Y.) sounded the alarm over the prospect of \u201ca Republican-caused shutdown,\u201d accusing his colleagues across the aisle of \u201conce again threatening to go-at-it-alone\u201d and refusing \u201cto work in a bipartisan way\u201d to keep the government open. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A day earlier, Speaker Mike Johnson\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-La.) accused Democrats of \u201cbeginning to apply their government shutdown pressure\u201d and said the blame for a funding lapse would rest on their shoulders for rejecting \u201ccommonsense solutions to fund the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A shutdown could pose political risks for both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans control a trifecta in Washington \u2014 the House, Senate and White House \u2014 meaning that blaming Democrats for a shutdown could be a hard sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Senate Democrats don\u2019t want to be seen as the only thing standing in the way of keeping the government open if the GOP-controlled House passes a funding bill \u2014 while also wanting to be seen as standing up to President Trump and Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The back and forth comes as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are expressing concerns about a shutdown amid heightened tensions over spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I had to bet today, there\u2019s a 50-50, perhaps higher, chance that we\u2019ll have a shutdown,\u201d said Sen. John Kennedy\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-La.), a senior appropriator, before taking aim at Democrats for what he called \u201cunreasonable requests\u201d on health care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats have been ramping up calls for bipartisan funding talks to avert a shutdown, while, in the same breath, sounding alarm over ObamaCare tax credits expected to expire later this year, along with Medicaid changes in Trump\u2019s sweeping tax and spending bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really important to me to lessen some of the harm that was done in Donald Trump\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>big, ugly bill so particularly with regard to health care and people\u2019s ability to sustain coverage and afford it,\u201d Sen. Tammy Baldwin\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Wis.), another senior appropriator, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-N.Y.) also cited health care in a \u201cDear Colleague\u201d letter last week in which he prepared his caucus to \u201cconfront the possibility of another painful Republican government shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHouse Democrats have repeatedly made clear that we are prepared to pass a bipartisan spending bill in advance of this deadline,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe will not rubber stamp partisan Republican legislation that hurts everyday Americans and continues their unprecedented attack on healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Members on both sides are warming up to the prospect of a short-term funding patch, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), sometime into November. Appropriators are hopeful of using the expected stopgap plan as a vehicle to pass three annual funding bills for departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, as well as the legislative branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But some are being cautious when pressed about the ambitious bid as they push for leadership to pick up bipartisan funding talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the first thing we have to do is have a conversation between the four leaders,\u201d Sen. Brian Schatz\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-Hawaii) said, while pointing to repeated requests by Democratic leaders to begin funding talks with GOP leadership in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think if we produce a bipartisan product, we can get a bipartisan vote,\u201d Schatz told reporters last week, but he added that a \u201cprerequisite to a bipartisan product is you have to have both parties sitting down and working on a bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey jammed us last time, and I am encouraging my Republican friends who want to do appropriations to understand that that won\u2019t work this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senate Democrats took a beating from their base during the last funding showdown in March, when they helped pave the way for Republicans to pass a GOP-crafted plan to keep the government open through early fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the deal was cheered by some Republicans at the time for cuts to nondefense dollars, members on both sides are hoping to see Congress update government funding levels in the coming months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n