Shutdown stalemate deepens

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Up next, the government shutdown tipping point.

If Washington’s funding lapse lasts beyond today, it will be the longest one in U.S. history. Even though essential programs are continuing to operate, cracks began to appear over the weekend.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: For the first time since 1992, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program stopped paying for food stamps, leading to long lines at food banks.

WORLD’s Carolina Lumetta reports from Washington.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: The Senate is scheduled to vote a 15th time on a continuing resolution that carries over existing spending until November 21st, to allow more time to pass overdue appropriations bills. House Speaker Mike Johnson in a news conference yesterday morning said Democrats are gaslighting the nation.

JOHNSON: They have voted to close the government and then they have gone out into the hall to the nearest camera they can find and they have looked into the lens and said, "Republicans are shutting down the government." It makes no sense.

But Democrats say they are holding out for one reason: saving COVID-era enhanced subsidies for Obamacare from expiring at the end of the year. Here’s House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries:

JEFFRIES: Republicans have been delusional from the very beginning of this government shutdown situation that they visited on the American people. … we were never going to vote for a partisan Republican spending bill that guts the health care of the American people.

If the enhanced subsidies expire, tens of millions of Americans could lose their premium benefits entirely or see them reduced. But if the subsidies are extended, the Congressional Budget Office estimates it would increase the federal deficit by $350 billion in the next ten years. It’s not great math, according to Heritage Foundation tax policy fellow Preston Brashers.

BRASHERS: They have a clean CR, it passed out of the House. The Democrats are demanding one and a half trillion dollars of additional spending. So to hold the government hostage in order to expand our debt even further is, I think, a rather ridiculous proposition, to be frank.

The White House has said it will not even begin Obamacare discussions until Democrats reopen the government. Democrats, like Michigan Senator Gary Peters, say they’re waiting on Trump to move first.

PETERS: None of the Republican senators are going to do anything unless Donald Trump tells them what to do. So if he doesn't tell them what to do, they're not going to do anything.

President Trump has something else in mind. He’s long complained that the 60-vote requirement in the Senate is burdensome to getting his agenda passed. Over the weekend, he posted on Truth Social that senators should simply get rid of the rule, called the filibuster. He explained further during a 60 Minutes interview on Sunday.

TRUMP: The Republicans have to get tougher. If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want…

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, along with most Republicans in the Senate, say that’s a nonstarter. It might make legislation easier to pass now, but it will also give Democrats equal free rein whenever they regain the majority. Trump disagrees.

TRUMP: And I also know there are other Republicans that feel the other way, and I understand that too, but they're wrong…The Democrats will do it in their first week in office.

The government has shut down 14 times since 1981, when procedures were put into place to stop many day-to-day operations and furlough employees. In 2013, Republicans refused to vote for appropriations because they opposed the Democrat-planned Obamacare. In 2018, Republicans again rejected appropriations that did not include $5.7 billion that Trump wanted for a border wall with Mexico. In both cases, they eventually caved. Obamacare passed and a border wall was never fully built.

BURGAT: Historically minority parties shutting down the government almost get nothing for this. They usually fold and they turn to messaging to say that this is why they won despite not getting anything tangible here.

Casey Burgat is a politics professor at George Washington University. For the past month, roughly equal ratios of Americans have blamed both parties, which meant that neither one felt the pressure to cave. But now that food benefits have stalled, more Americans are frustrated with the Republicans. An NBC poll conducted in late October found 42% of Americans blame congressional Democrats for the shutdown. Fifty-two percent hold Trump and congressional Republicans responsible. Three percent said they blame both.

BURGAT: Winning can take on many different facets and this is why I get why people hate Washington.

But Burgat says the win for Democrats could be in public opinion. Voters might know that Democrats caused the shutdown, but they expect the party in the majority to fix it.

BURGAT: Democrats have been looking for something to plant their flag in the ground, to use what little leverage they have in a DC controlled by Republicans right now…knowing full well a lot of voters only, all they know about DC is number one, it's broken. And number two, that Republicans control it…

The CR passed by the House would only fund the government until November 21. Yesterday, Thune said he’s now open to considering a new CR to fund the government through January.

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