President Donald Trump is preparing to effectively dare Democrats to shut down the government in a matter of weeks, taking a hard line against any major concessions ahead of negotiations over a must-pass funding bill.
The White House plans to reject any Democratic demands that key health provisions in the GOP’s domestic policy law be reversed as part of a budget package, aides said. And it will insist on retaining Trump’s authority to claw back funding at will — seeking to cement an extraordinary expansion of executive power that has already roiled lawmakers in both parties.
“We’re not going to accept any limitations on the president’s authorities or attempts to reverse President Trump’s policies,” a senior White House official told CNN. “The president is not going to be constrained.”
Trump’s opening salvo sets the stage for a high-stakes standoff with congressional Democrats that could push the government into crisis as soon as the end of September. The strategy is aimed at pressuring Democratic leaders, who are balancing efforts to avert a damaging shutdown with demands from their base to mount a stronger fight against Trump.
The two parties have yet to formally begin talks ahead of the September 30 funding deadline. Yet Democratic leaders are already telegraphing publicly and privately that they will not accept a status-quo funding deal without major concessions from Trump. They’ve signaled they want the White House to restore some of the billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and rural hospital funding that was passed as part of the president’s signature domestic policy law — in addition to accepting checks on his power to override Congress’ spending decisions.
“There is a sense of no surrender,” said California Rep. Ro Khanna, describing the position among many congressional Democrats as they return to Washington this week. “I think people saw how badly it went when there was a capitulation. … We heard the anger of the base.”
Behind the scenes, top Democrats spent the summer making sure their party — including lawmakers, governors and key groups — would be aligned on how to use the funding deadline as leverage to extract compromises from Republicans, according to multiple people familiar with the discussions. They are eager to avoid a repeat of March, when Senate Democrats caved on a GOP-written funding measure in a decision that fractured the party. (This time around, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has privately reassured members of his party that he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be closely coordinating, according to two of the people familiar with the discussions.)
Top Democrats’ resolve to fight Trump only strengthened after his Thursday notification that he’s canceling nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid funding — marking a dramatic escalation of their party’s months-long fight with Trump’s budget chief, Russ Vought. Jeffries in a statement called Trump a “wannabe king.”
White House officials have long advocated for clawing back funding, spearheading passage of a $9 billion spending cuts package earlier this summer that aides have since characterized as a test case for future cancellations. In addition to Thursday’s so-called pocket rescission targeting foreign aid, Vought has teased plans for sending yet another rescission request to Congress in the coming months.
Even some Republicans have criticized the White House over rescissions, with top Senate appropriator Susan Collins of Maine calling Friday’s move “a clear violation of the law.”
But the White House’s latest effort to wrest control of federal spending from Capitol Hill has emboldened Democrats, who say that unlike last spring, they won’t back down this time.
“We have to have guardrails,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told CNN on Friday. “This latest move last night demonstrates that they just don’t care about following the law. … It is about controlling the power of the purse, directing money where they want to, to whom they want to.”
Asked what would happen if Republicans reject Democrats’ position on both health care and the spending cancellations, the Connecticut congresswoman stressed it’s not Democrats’ responsibility to reach an agreement.
“When you’re in charge, you take the lead. You’re leading, you have the majority,” DeLauro said.
Jeffries reiterated that position in a podcast with Democratic activists recorded in late August: “We’re not down with an approach where Republicans simply say, my way or the highway.”
The New York Democrat also added another potential wrinkle to the spending fight, confirming that he would demand Republicans release $1 billion in money for the Washington, DC, government that’s been held up by Congress for much of this year, even as Trump has recently deployed the National Guard and federalized the local police to crackdown on what he says is a crime problem in the nation’s capital.
White House officials preparing for Congress’ return have already set red lines against any agreement that they think would curb Trump’s power or modify GOP policies already passed into law.
“The administration is not going to do that to themselves,” the senior White House official said, specifying that the prospect of reversing health cuts in Trump’s signature law is a nonstarter. “So we can either have a serious conversation or Democrats can shut the government down.”
Over the August recess, the White House kept in touch with Republican leaders about its expectations while gauging where various factions of the conference stand on the potential for a stopgap funding measure. Hardline House conservatives have previously opposed such budget deals, which has prompted lingering concern among White House aides that even a handful of defections could weaken the GOP’s hand.
But this time, some conservative lawmakers have already indicated openness to such a stopgap — and Republicans are counting on the promise of further rescissions to help tamp down any rebellion. House GOP leaders believe they will eventually have enough votes to pass a short-term stopgap through the House, putting the pressure squarely on the Senate.
“We’ve been laying the groundwork for this,” one GOP official familiar with the discussions said of keeping the party together. “We’re trying to get ahead of it and say, ‘This is the Democrat shutdown.’”
In early discussions, the White House has left the door open to a year-end compromise on one issue: the looming expiration of enhanced Obamacare subsidies. Health insurance premiums are expected to shoot up this fall if the aid isn’t extended, a prospect that’s alarmed Democrats and even some Republicans worried about the political fallout of rising health care bills.
Democrats, too, have privately focused on the need to extend the subsidies. The issue came up on a private call among House Democrats last week, with Jeffries describing it as a priority, according to two people who listened into the call.
Though Trump aides remain skeptical of the subsidies, they’ve signaled some willingness to revisit it — just not in the initial efforts to keep the government open past September.
“It’s certainly a discussion worth having,” the senior White House official said. “But taking hostages is not the way to facilitate that.”
Democrats, though, argue the hostage-taking is already underway with Trump insisting he and his administration can simply ignore Congress’ funding decisions after the fact.
“We’re not taking hostages. They’re the ones who need to keep the government open,” one Democratic aide said.
