The federal authorities formally shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, leaving federal employees with out pay, and federal companies shuttered.
However who’s accountable for the federal shutdown is dependent upon who you ask within the nation’s capital. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are pointing fingers at Democrats after the 2 events failed to succeed in a bipartisan deal to fund the federal government previous Oct. 1.
“After months of creating life more durable and costlier, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal authorities as a result of they don’t need to defend the healthcare of the American folks,” U.S. Home of Representatives Minority Chief, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., stated in an announcement at precisely 12:01 a.m.
Jeffries stated Democrats “stay able to discover a bipartisan path ahead to reopen the federal government,” however provided that Republicans work with them “in a method that lowers and addresses the Republican healthcare disaster.”
On the coronary heart of the political impasse on Capitol Hill is the Republicans’ refusal to present in to the Democrats’ calls for to completely lengthen the soon-to-be-expired tax credit underneath Obamacare, or the Reasonably priced Care Act, that had been handed throughout the pandemic to assist insurance coverage recipients afford their well being care. Democrats are additionally pushing to revive almost $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that Republicans established of their unpopular “One, Large, Lovely Invoice.”
Trump and Republicans repeatedly accused Democrats of wanting to offer taxpayer well being care to undocumented immigrants. Nevertheless, federal regulation prohibits their eligibility, with exceptions for these with authorized standing, resembling refugees and people in search of asylum.
Chief Jeffries excoriated Trump for taking private photographs at him relatively than working with Democrats to avert the federal government shutdown. Whereas Republicans management the White Home, Home, and Senate, their majority within the Senate is slim (53), leaving them with out the wanted votes (60) to move a price range invoice. Democrats argue that it requires Republicans to return to the negotiation desk with Democrats to return to some center floor.
“Over the previous couple of days, President Trump’s conduct has turn into extra erratic and unhinged. As a substitute of negotiating a bipartisan settlement in good religion, he’s obsessively posting crazed, deep, pretend movies,” stated Jeffries, referring to a racist AI video Trump posted on social media concentrating on him and Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer.
“The nation is in determined want of an intervention to get out of one other Trump shutdown,” stated Jeffries.
Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, stated the federal shutdown is “solely of the Republican Celebration’s making.”
She lamented that, “sadly, Black communities can be compelled to bear the brunt of their political video games.”
Echoing Jeffries, Clarke stated in an announcement, “As a substitute of coming to the negotiating desk to discover a bipartisan answer to forestall Individuals from dropping life-saving healthcare, they left city. As a substitute of negotiating in good religion with Democratic management, President Trump cowardly posted racist deepfakes on the web. This conduct exhibits the American folks precisely who the Republicans are and the place their priorities lie.”
Clarke stated the struggle to guard Medicaid and Medicare is value combating for, notably as a result of “1 in 5 Medicaid enrollees are Black” and the cuts will end result within the closing of hospitals, nursing houses, and clinics throughout the nation that depend on federal funding.
The CBC chairwoman additionally defended Democrats’ push to increase Obamacare tax credit, arguing that with out it, premiums will drive up prices and push protection “out of attain for a lot of in our communities.”
She added, “And if that weren’t unhealthy sufficient, they’re gutting medical analysis on ailments that disproportionately impression Black Individuals like coronary heart illness and diabetes.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who held a press convention forward of the shutdown alongside employees and households who can be impacted, stated that President Trump and his “Republican co-conspirators” proceed to “display contempt for the folks and advance dangerous insurance policies that make folks hungrier, poorer, sicker, and fewer protected.”
“As duly elected Members of Congress, it’s not solely our responsibility, however our obligation, to make life higher for the folks we serve. As a substitute, Republicans have shamefully pushed the nation right into a harmful authorities shutdown, and our constituents deserve higher,” stated the congresswoman. “I refuse to simply accept this future as an inevitability, and I’ll proceed to struggle to reopen the authorities, hold important providers operating, and mitigate the Republican-caused healthcare disaster.”
