Journalism of Courage
US President Donald Trump on Friday again urged fellow Republicans to terminate the filibuster as the government shutdown entered its 38th day, with no signs of it ending anytime soon.
“Republicans, Terminate the Filibuster and bring back the American Dream. If you don’t do it, the Dems will, and you’ll never see office again!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Just say NO (Nuclear Option!). TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER!,” Trump said in another post.
Trump has also been increasingly fixated on pushing Republicans to scrap the Senate filibuster to speed reopening — a step many GOP senators reject out of hand.
Trump kept up the pressure in a video on Wednesday, saying the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to pass legislation should be “terminated.”
During a White House breakfast on Wednesday, too, Trump had urged Republicans to end the shutdown. Trump said he thought the six-week impasse was a “big factor, negative” in Tuesday’s elections that were overwhelmingly favourable for Democrats.
Meanwhile, Republican senators are trying to end the government shutdown by preparing a bipartisan package of spending bills they hope will win new Democratic votes.
Democrats have voted 14 times not to reopen the government as they demand an extension of expiring health care subsidies, which aren’t expected to be part of the legislation. Many said Thursday they would continue to hold out until President Trump and Republican leaders negotiate with them on an extension.
“That’s what leaders do,” Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan told the Associated Press. “You have the gavel, you have the majority, you have to bring people together.”
Some Democrats say the fight isn’t over until Republicans and President Donald Trump agree to extend health care subsidies that expire in January.
Others are pushing a deal that would reopen the government with only an agreement for a future vote on the issue. “Working on unity and working on health care,” Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said after the meeting.
Still, lawmakers in both parties were feeling increased urgency to alleviate the growing crisis at airports, pay government workers and restore delayed food aid to millions of people now that the shutdown has become the longest in US history.
Democrats are facing pressure from both unions eager for the shutdown to end and from allied groups that want them to hold firm. Many Democrats have argued that strong results for Democrats in Tuesday’s election show voters want them to continue the fight until Republicans yield and agree to extend the health tax credits.
A vote on the health care subsidies “has got to mean something,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said this week. “That means a commitment by the Speaker of the House, that he will support the legislation, that the president will sign.”
But Speaker Mike Johnson made clear Thursday morning he won’t make any commitment to Democrats. “I’m not promising anybody anything,” Johnson said when asked if he could promise a vote on a health care bill. Johnson’s clear refusal was a setback for negotiators.
