With a looming government shutdown, Trump flip-flopped and decided to meet with congressional leaders. As Susie Madrak noted here, “Democrats have one ask: fund healthcare, in the form of extending ACA subsidies and restoring funding to Medicaid that was cut in Trump’s Big Beautiful Ugly Bill.” But we’re hearing Republicans, who have the House, the Senate, the presidency, and the Supreme Court, say that Democrats are holding the country hostage.
The White House’s response to Democrats wanting to secure health coverage for 20 million Americans was, “Go fuck yourself.”
“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” one official told Politico, adding that Democrats “will pay a huge price for this.”
“Democrats are demanding Republicans negotiate a bipartisan stopgap spending measure. Among their asks is for the GOP to extend certain Affordable Care Act subsidies, which were expanded by Congress in 2021 and are due to sunset at the end of the year,” the outlet reports. “President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed Democrats for making “unserious and ridiculous” demands, foreshadowing what is likely to be the go-to talking point should neither side blink ahead of the Tuesday night deadline.”
