A previously united front of Democratic opposition in the U.S. Senate began to break this week as three Democrats crossed party lines to back a Republican proposal aimed at reopening the federal government.
The shutdown, now in its seventh day, is nearing the point when federal workers will begin missing paychecks, intensifying pressure on both parties to reach an agreement before furloughed employees face financial hardship.
As recently as Monday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had urged his caucus to “fight” to preserve Affordable Care Act subsidies, which Republicans have proposed addressing in separate legislation.
Ongoing gridlock has so far prevented Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) from securing the 60 votes required to advance a short-term government funding measure. However, signs of potential compromise emerged Tuesday when Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats, continued to side with Republicans in supporting a clean spending plan, Politico reported.
Several rounds of voting have produced a 55–45 outcome, leaving Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) still five votes short of the 60 needed to advance the funding measure.
Fetterman has backed the Republican plan since the first vote on the proposal was held on September 19.
“Shutting our government down isn’t a ‘game.’ Democrat or Republican, regardless of the reason— America loses. ‘Blame’ is on anyone that picks party over country,” Fetterman said on X on Friday.
That same day, Cortez Mastro said Republicans “need to come to the negotiating table and fix the health care crisis they’ve created.”
However, on Tuesday, the Nevada Democrat explained why she changed her stance, saying her party “should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another.”
And though her party is responsible for blocking passage of a clean spending bill, thereby reopening the goverment, she nevertheless tried to pin it on President Donald Trump and Republicans.
“President Trump and Congressional Republicans are already hurting Nevadans who are dealing with high costs, an economic slowdown, and a looming health care crisis. This administration doesn’t care about Nevadans, but I do,” she wrote on X.
“That’s why I cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration. We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another,” she claimed.
Tuesday’s vote was the first time that King has sided with the GOP, a vote he said was “one of the most difficult” he has made since being in the Senate.
“I did not want to hand Donald Trump and Russell Vought and Stephen Miller additional power to decimate the federal government, to decimate the programs that are so important to so many people,” King said in a video posted to X.
Meanwhile, the sole Republican to oppose the spending bill, unsurprisingly, is Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
On Tuesday, as the shutdown continued, Trump set a deadline for when his administration would begin implementing cuts to federal workers and programs if the ongoing government shutdown is not resolved.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said that if the shutdown continues for four to five more days, his administration could move forward with mass layoffs and reductions across multiple federal agencies.
“How many permanent jobs are you talking about eliminating?” a reporter asked Trump during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“I’ll be able to tell you that in four or five days. If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back,” Trump responded. “You’re going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget.”
The reporter also questioned Trump about any programs he wished to cut during the shutdown.
“Oh, sure. We have a lot, I’m not going to tell you, but we’ll be announcing it pretty soon. But we have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate,” Trump said.