After weeks of different Democrats taking different shutdown approaches — some voting with Republicans, some talking with GOP lawmakers about a bipartisan deal, and some holding out completely — Democrats emerged from an hours-long closed-door meeting on Thursday advocating a new strategy: Unity.
What that unity means, in practice, is unclear. And whether that unity can be maintained — and for how long — remains to be seen. But the answers to those questions could decide how and when the shutdown ends.
“Our goal is to try to all stay together as much as we can,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Democrats met.
Asked what the next steps are, however, Murphy reported that he didn’t have “much more to say.”
Across the ideological spectrum, Democrats struck the same tone over and over again: unified in message, vague on mechanics.
“We’re unified on how we’re moving forward,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told reporters.
“It was an encouraging caucus, because there’s a great deal of unity,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said.
“I feel like we’re very unified,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., told reporters. “I’m excited to see what we can put together here.”
Behind closed doors, Democrats have been discussing making their own “unified” offer on the shutdown, sources told MSNBC, though they seem to be holding out at the moment to see if Republicans will make a better offer first.
Among the ideas Democrats are discussing is a clean continuing resolution in exchange for a guaranteed vote on scaled-down Obamacare subsidies — by a date certain and in the House and Senate — though sources cautioned that nothing is set in stone.
At the moment, Republicans are intent on offering just a slight variation on what they’ve offered Democrats more than a dozen times before. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to hold another vote on government funding on Friday — only this time, it won’t be the same bill that Democrats have already rejected 14 times.
Instead, Thune will offer to amend the bill, attaching a package of three appropriation bills and changing the end date for the stopgap spending measure, three sources told MSNBC. The new funding bill will likely be adjusted from Nov. 21 to some date in January, the sources said, though that detail remains undecided.
The offer resembles a deal that a bipartisan group of members had been working toward for weeks as a possible offramp to the record-breaking shutdown.
But as of Thursday evening, several Senate Democrats told MSNBC that Thune’s latest proposal would not sway them, with many pointing to the lack of action on extending Obamacare subsidies as their reason for their opposition.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said that if the proposal doesn’t address expiring subsidies — and all indications are, it won’t — it’s “a nonstarter for me.”
“I’m not here for show votes,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said. “Show votes is not gonna make things an easier situation for a family that has to figure out: I’m gonna pay utility bills or I’m gonna pay my premiums.”
For all the talk of unity, whether all Democrats will stand in opposition to the bill — considering the growing pain of the shutdown and the fact that many of them were working toward a deal like this for weeks — is unclear. Several Democrats were noncommittal when asked by reporters Thursday night.
“The views of the caucus as a whole are still in flux,” Blumenthal said of the overall dynamics.
I’m totally disgusted with everybody in the Senate right now. I wouldn’t let us manage a ham sandwich, OK? This is embarrassing.”
One Senate Democrat, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations, said “a nucleus” of the caucus is in agreement that “there has to be a health care guarantee” tied to a funding bill.
“It can’t be a separate vote,” this Democrat said. “It has to be combined.”
That position continues to be a nonstarter for Republicans. Thune and Republicans refuse to negotiate over the Obamacare subsidies while the government is shut down, insisting that Democrats first turn the lights back on before engaging in such deliberations.
At most, Thune has offered to commit to a separate, standalone vote on the Affordable Care Act subsidies — with no guarantee it will pass.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., threw an additional wrench into that approach Thursday when, in response to a question from MSNBC, he refused to commit to holding a vote on the Obamacare tax credits, calling into question whether the subsidies will ever be extended.
“The House did its job on Sept. 19. I’m not promising anybody anything,” Johnson said. “I’m gonna let this process play out.”
In the Democratic Caucus, some senators privately worry that more moderate members of their group may become antsy and support the GOP offer.
“Everybody wants to do it,” the Senate Democrat said of extending the Obamacare subsidies. “The question is how long another group might be willing or unwilling to hold out.”
This lawmaker added that the Democrats most uncomfortable with the shutdown feel that Congress needs to resolve the standoff “in the next couple of weeks” — “before Thanksgiving and better sooner than later.”
But Democrats who are hoping for a better deal are encouraged by some cracks on the GOP side. For one, on Thursday, Republicans began adding sweeteners to their funding offers — like reinstating government workers who have recently been laid off.
For another, there are some Republicans who seem to want to discuss the Obamacare subsidies. Democratic Sens. Andy Kim of New Jersey and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware are scheduled to meet with Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey on Friday to discuss a bipartisan extension of the Obamacare subsidies, two sources confirmed to MSNBC, a cross-party conversation that could bear some fruit.
Still, even if lawmakers started moving on a resolution, it would take a good deal of time to work through the legislative process.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., predicted that Congress is “at least seven days, and more likely 10, and very possibly two weeks away from opening up — at the best.”
“I’m totally disgusted with everybody in the Senate right now,” Kennedy said. “I wouldn’t let us manage a ham sandwich, OK? This is embarrassing.”