Thune uses shutdown deadline to pressure Democrats on funding bill

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wants to jam Senate Democrats with the GOP’s short-term funding extension, but so far they aren’t ready to play ball.

Republicans and Democrats in the upper chamber blocked dueling continuing resolutions (CRs) from both parties last week and have now left Washington, D.C., until Sept. 29, effectively giving lawmakers in the upper chamber only two working days before the midnight deadline on Sept. 30.

Both sides are at an impasse. Senate Republicans argue that the “clean” extension, which would last until Nov. 21 and lacks any partisan policy riders, is everything Democrats dreamed of when they controlled the upper chamber.

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Senate Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., however, argue that they want a seat at the negotiating table and are adamant that expiring Obamacare premium subsidies must be dealt with now, rather than at the end of the year.

“They’re trying to use what they think is leverage to get a bunch of stuff done,” Thune said. “It’s never going to happen. I mean, can you imagine anything in that bill that they sent that we voted down today, passing in the Republican House of Representatives? Absolutely not. It’s just not serious.”

Democrats’ proposal included a permanent extension to the expiring Obamacare subsidies, clawbacks of canceled funding for NPR and PBS, and it would have repealed the healthcare provisions in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — policy that would reverse the nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts while also getting rid of the $50 billion rural hospital fund.

“They’re not being serious,” Thune said. “This is just a cold-blooded partisan political attempt to try and score political points with a left-wing base.”

Though he has not taken the option off the table, it’s unlikely that Thune would cut this recess short. Instead, he wants to use the impending deadline to back Senate Democrats into a corner. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., played into that strategy, too, when he announced that the House would not return until after the funding deadline.

Thune is ready to bring the same CR passed by House Republicans last week to the floor.

SENATE REPUBLICANS…