White House Meeting With Congressional Leaders Ends In Stalemate: ‘We’re Heading To A Shutdown’
Vice President JD Vance delivered a stark warning Monday after leaving a high-stakes White House meeting with congressional leaders, saying a government shutdown now appears likely.
“I think we’re heading to a shutdown, because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,” Vance told reporters. “I hope they change their mind, but we’re going to see.”
President Donald Trump and Vance convened with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in an attempt to secure a continuing resolution that would extend government funding through November 21. Without it, the government will run out of money on October 1.
The House passed the seven-week extension on Sept. 19 by a narrow 217-212 vote, but the Senate blocked the measure, 44-48. Sixty votes are required to break the filibuster.
Speaking after the meeting, leaders showed little progress. Republicans urged Democrats to support the “clean” resolution already approved by the House, while Democrats pressed for concessions tied to health care policy.
“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,” Vance said. “You don’t use those disagreements as an excuse to grind essential government services to a halt.”
Vance warned that “the American people are going to suffer because these guys won’t do the right thing.”
Schumer countered that Democrats had offered proposals to Trump during the meeting, including measures aimed at protecting health care access. He pointed to rural hospitals closing and clinics shuttering as examples of the stakes.
“If he will accept some of the things we asked, which we think the American people are for, on healthcare and on recessions, he can avoid a shutdown. But there are still large differences between us,” Schumer said, adding that the GOP bill had “not one iota of Democratic input.”
Schumer claimed the decision rests with Republicans. “It is up to the Republicans if they want to shut down or not.”
Johnson bristled at that suggestion, saying Democrats refuse to “acknowledge the simple facts.” He called the House-passed measure “commonsense” and accused Democrats of countering with a plan that demanded $1.5 trillion in unrelated new spending.
“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.
Thune, standing beside Johnson, waved a copy of the continuing resolution and insisted the Senate could approve it immediately if Democrats dropped their opposition. “Right now, they are the only thing standing between the American people and the government shutting down,” he said.
Thune noted that similar resolutions were passed 13 times when Democrats controlled Congress. “To me, this is purely a hostage-taking exercise on part of the Democrats,” he said. “We’re 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 hijacking of the American people, and it’s the American people who will pay the price.”
Jeffries and Schumer had already laid out their position in a Sept. 20 letter to the president, shared on X, vowing not to support what they called a “dirty spending bill that continues the Republican assault on healthcare.”
Jeffries claimed the bill would slash Medicaid and Medicare, drive up premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, and eliminate Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Unless a compromise is reached, the government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.