WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump met with the four top congressional leaders at the White House on Monday as a government shutdown looms in the nation’s capital.
Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Vice President JD Vance and Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought were also in attendance.
Lawmakers remain at an impasse, even after the meeting with the president.
Those inside the talks spoke outside the Oval Office about the meeting. Here are their reactions:
Vice President JD Vance
“We just had a very frank conversation with the Senate and House Democratic leadership. Look. The principle at stake here is very simple. We have disagreements about tax policy, but you don’t shut the government down. We have disagreements about healthcare policy. But you don’t shut the government down. You don’t use your policy disagreements as leverage to not pay our troops, to not have a first services of government actually function. You don’t say the fact that you disagree about a particular tax provision is an excuse for shutting down to the people’s government, and all the essential services that come along with it,” Vance said
If you look at what Chuck Schumer has said in the past consistently, it’s whatever our disagreements are, let’s negotiate with them. Let’s talk about them. Let’s figure out a bipartisan solution. But you don’t shut the government down. In other words, you don’t put a gun to the American people’s head and say, unless you do exactly what the House Democrats want you to do, we’re going to shut down your government. That’s exactly what they’re proposing out there.”
“Now, we have to remember they’re they’re very frustrated. They say that they’re very frustrated about the fact that this negotiation has not taken place until today. You will hear a lot from Senate Democrats, from House Democrats about the fact that American healthcare policy is broken. Well, we know that American healthcare policy is broken. We’ve been trying to fix it for the eight months that we’ve been in office. But every single thing that they accuse about being broken, about American healthcare, is policy that Democrats have supported for the past decade. So if they want to talk about how to fix American healthcare policy, let’s do it. The Speaker would love to do it. The Senate majority leader would love to do it. Let’s work on it together. But let’s do it in the context of an open government that’s providing essential services to the American people. That’s all that we’re proposing to do. And the fact that they refused to do that shows how unreasonable their position is,” Vance explained.
I think we’re headed to a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing. I hope they change their mind,’ Vance said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune
“This right here, ladies and gentlemen, is what we’re talking about. 24 pages. It’s a continuing resolution to fund the government through November the 21st. I don’t know where they’re saying this is some huge partisan thing. This is something we do fairly routinely. And when the Democrats had the majority on 13 different occasions, they had the majority. President Biden was in the White House. We passed continuing resolutions to fund the government. This is purely and simply hostage taking on the path on behalf of the Democrats. So it’s to me, this is, it’s purely a hostage taking exercise on the part of the Democrats,” Thune said.
We are willing to sit down and work with them on some of the issues they want to talk about, whether it’s the extension of premium tax credits with reforms. We’re happy to have that conversation. But as of right now, this is a this is a hijacking of the American people, and it’s the American people are going to pay the price.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
“We have very large differences on healthcare and on their ability to undo whatever budget we agreed to through rescissions and through, impoundment as well as pocket rescissions. And we, I think for the first time, the president heard our objections and heard why we needed a bipartisan bill. Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we’ve done this before,” Schumer said. “When I was leader, we negotiated four times with Republicans and we never had a shutdown. And so it’s up to the Republicans whether they want a shutdown or not.”
I told him how I met a mother who was crying to me because her daughter had cancer. And what has happened with healthcare, with what they have done. She’s going to watch her daughter suffer and maybe die. And so he seemed to, for the first time, understand the magnitude of this crisis. And we hope he’ll talk to the Republican leaders and tell them we need bipartisan input on healthcare, on Rescissions into their bill. Their bill does not have these. They never talk to us. Thune didn’t negotiate with me. Johnson didn’t negotiate with Hakeem.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson
“The problem is that Chuck Schumer and, Leader Jeffries refused to acknowledge the simple facts. Let’s review what the simple facts are. As the vice president was saying, this is the commonsense thing to do. This is the right thing to do. This is the simple thing to do. By way of review, the House is getting back to the way the regular appropriations process is supposed to work. So what we did and the Republican majority is the right, responsible, simple thing, a clean continuing resolution, a short-term, nonpartisan, continuing resolution. It’s only 24 pages in length. Leader Thune has a copy if you want to see the exhibit. There’s nothing partisan in here. No policy riders. None of our big party preferences. Because we want to do the right thing by the American people and allow more time for negotiation,” Johnson explained.
During the Biden administration, there were 13 threatened shutdowns. The Republicans in the minority did the right thing. We kept the government open. We’re simply asking for the Democrats do the same.”
“Again, I want to thank President Trump for the strong, solid leadership. He listened to the arguments and they just wouldn’t acknowledge the simple facts. I want to thank, Vice President here for showing his leadership as well. If the Democrats make the decision to shut the government down, the consequences are on them. And I think it’s absolutely tragic,” Johnson said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
“It was a frank and direct discussion with the president of the United States and Republican leaders. But significant and meaningful differences remain. Democrats are fighting to protect the healthcare of the American people. And we are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the healthcare of everyday Americans. Period,” Jeffries explained.
Full stop is a Republican caused healthcare crisis that is causing hospitals and nursing homes and community-based health clinics all across the country in rural America, urban America, small town America, the heartland of America, and Black and brown communities throughout this country. And that crisis is happening right now.”
Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought
“We want to keep this government open. It is not good for the American people to have the government shut down for any period of time. We will manage it appropriately. But it is. It is something that can all be avoided. It can all be avoided by accepting a reasonable position, which is what the House has passed and which sits at the Senate desk, which is to continue to fund the government with a short-term continuing resolution. It has never been a viewpoint that $1.5 trillion is a reasonable amount of spending to be included on a short-term CR. This is hostage taking. It is not something that we are going to accept. And we hope that the Democrats come back from the brink, fund this government and allow us to move forward,” Vought said.
How we got here
The initial meeting was canceled by Trump, blaming the Democrats for “unserious and ridiculous” demands.
During a phone interview with CBS News Sunday night, Trump said that a government shutdown is likely, saying that he doesn’t know “how we are going to solve this issue.”
Trump said that he thinks the American people will side with him, saying that the Democrats are “not interested in fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Prior to the meeting, Schumer and Jeffries said they were both hoping to avoid a shutdown, but both leaders expect concessions.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Schumer said, “The meeting is a first step, but only a first step. We need a serious negotiation.”
“Now, if the president at this meeting is going to rant and just yell at Democrats and talk about all his alleged grievances and say this, that, and the other thing, we won’t get anything done.”
Before they sign onto anything, Democrats have been trying to get some concessions on healthcare, including extending Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, used to help offset costs for some of the 24 million people now enrolled in the Affordable Care Act.
Without action, what they pay for healthcare now could double.
On Monday, Jeffries spoke to members of the press on Capitol Hill ahead of the meeting.
We are ready, we are willing, we are able to find a bipartisan path forward and reach a spending agreement that actually keeps the government open but meets the needs of the American people…What we will not do is support a partisan Republican spending bill,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries also called out Republicans for claiming Democrats want to shut down the government to give healthcare to illegal migrants.
“Federal law prohibits the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on providing healthcare to undocumented immigrants. Nowhere have democrats suggested that we are interested in changing federal law,” Jeffries said.
While Democrats are looking to extend key Obamacare subsidies, Thune says that Republicans will not negotiate a short-term bill.
According to Thune, Republican leaders would rather compromise with Democratic leadership on a longer-term bill to fund the government.
What the Democrats have done here is take the federal government as a hostage, and for that matter, by extension, the American people, to try and get a whole laundry list of things that they want that special interest groups on the far left are pushing them to accomplish,” Thune told “Meet the Press.”
As Senators return to Washington, the House is out of session. If the government shuts down, millions of federal workers will not be paid, with thousands of them being furloughed.
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans in anticipation of mass firings during a possible government shutdown.
“It has never been more important for the Administration to be prepared for a shutdown if the Democrats choose to pursue one.”
Agencies were also directed to “use this opportunity to consider reduction in force (RIF).”
