Democrats float possible compromise to avert government shutdown before meeting with Trump

By Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Bo Erickson

Washington (Reuters) -ABD President Donald Trump and the Democrats, the hunter of a high -bet White House meeting, led to a possible compromise on Monday to start the closure of a government that could disrupt a wide range of services as soon as possible on Wednesday.

According to democratic sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and other MPs are weighing a plan that would expand their government funds for seven to 10 days of their last date on Tuesday (0400 GMT Wednesday) and buy time to make a more permanent agreement. Sources, other options are on the table, he said.

It was not clear whether Trump and his Republicans would support this idea at a White House meeting in the afternoon to discuss the deadlock. The democrat’s plan will also have to obtain approval in the House of Representatives led by the Republic to prevent disruption.

The Democrats say that any agreement on expanding government financing should also maintain full -time health benefits. Trump’s republicans insist that health and government financing should be considered as separate issues.

Senate Republican leader John Thune, until November 21st, longer than the framework of the democrats, a Stopgap financing invoice that would not address the health problem on Tuesday, trying to press on the democrats by planning a vote. Almost all Democrats voted against this bill when they began to vote on September 19.

“This is up to the democrats,” he said to the Republican journalists in the South Dakota. It needs at least seven democratic voters to cross the financing legislation.

If the congress does not move, thousands of federal government employees can be removed from NASA to national parks and a wide range of services are broken. Federal courts may need to be closed and grants may be postponed for small enterprises.

Budget postures have become relatively routine in Washington in the last 15 years and have been solved at the last minute. However, Trump’s desire to invalidate or ignore the laws of expenditure by the congress injected a new dimension of uncertainty.

Trump refused to spend billions of dollars approved by the congress and threatens to liquidate the federal labor force if the congress allowed the government to close. So far, only a handful of agencies have published plans that detail how to move in case of closure.

It is $ 1.7 trillion in the “optional” expenditures that finance agency operations. Most of the rest of them go to health and pension programs and interest payments related to the increasing debt of $ 37.5 trillion.

Chronic Closes

Since 1981, there have been 14 partial government closure, most of them remained only a few days. The last one lasted the longest and 35 days in 2018 and 2019 due to a dispute about migration in Trump’s first period.

This time there is health services. Approximately 24 million Americans, which are covered by the appropriate maintenance law, will see that if the congress does not expand the temporary tax cuts to end at the end of this year, their costs are increased.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Leader of the Assembly, said the Congress should currently make these tax cuts permanent, because higher health insurance premiums are finalized and the new registration time starts on 1 November.

“We believe that it is unacceptable to accept the Republican plan to continue the attack and to continue health services,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Monday. He said.

Thune, Congress, first of all financing should not pass before overcoming other problems, he said.

“Big decisions should not be made in a hurry,” Washington wrote on Monday. “They should definitely not be done because if one side does not enter the road threatens to close the government.”

Some democratic helpers suggested that their parties could support a short -term financing bill if Republicans agreed to vote for health benefits. However, Jeffries rejected this idea last week, saying that the Republicans could not be trusted.

The Democrats want to give energy to the voting bases before the 2026 midterm elections, the control of the Congress will be in danger and when it is widely listed behind health services.

However, democratic helpers expressed their concerns that if the democrats do not effectively discuss their cases and instead of being against everything Trump, they could create a public reaction – a stance like Thunde mocked as “Trump Disorder Syndrome”.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by David Morgan, Katharine Jackson and James Oliphant; by Andy Sullivan;