The biggest hurdle preventing lawmakers from striking a deal to end the government shutdown may be something a policy negotiation can’t overcome: a lack of trust.
As the government shutdown stretches into its third week, the distrust between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill — and down Pennsylvania Avenue — is becoming more and more pronounced. And it is dogging any progress in turning the lights back in on Washington.
“Yeah, there’s a lack of trust,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told MSNBC on Tuesday. “Does it make it harder to come to terms on hard things like a government shutdown? Absolutely.”
In the clearest sign of that mistrust, the top two congressional Democrats — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York — are categorically rejecting the possibility of reopening the government in exchange for some promise from Republicans that lawmakers will discuss the expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits at some point in the future.
Democrats have demanded that Congress address the looming health care cliff as part of government funding negotiations — a nonstarter for Republican leaders. Instead, GOP leaders have said they’ll discuss the program, including reforms to it, only after the government reopens.
Rather than take that offer, Democrats are pleading for action on the Obamacare subsidies now — and for it be put into legislative text — refusing to take the word of their GOP colleagues that the issue will be dealt with later in the year.
“The Republicans do have a credibility issue when it comes to health care and the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said Tuesday, noting that Republicans have tried, albeit unsuccessfully, a number of times to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“Which is why if we’re gonna resolve this issue, it can’t simply be a Republican wing and a prayer,” Jeffries added. “We actually need legislative action that extends the Affordable Care Act tax credit.”
They’ve made it clear that they’re gonna continue to support rescissions, and that’s a violation of every norm we have here to back up bipartisan agreements.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
Schumer has struck a similar note. Asked last week if Democrats would accept a commitment from Republicans to negotiate, the longtime leader had a definitive answer: “No.”
“We need to solve the problem,” Schumer said. “The first step is a commitment to negotiate.”
He added that Democrats couldn’t just shake on a deal to discuss the subsidies, only to have Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., just block it “because he’s so afraid.”
Late last month, before the shutdown began, Schumer told reporters: “We think that when they say later, they mean never.”
That posture — and the reticence among both parties to soften their stances — is dragging out the shutdown fight and putting it in the running for a spot in the history books. This week, Johnson told reporters: “We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”
Of course, the distrust between the two parties has been a fixture of deliberations on Capitol Hill for decades. But the new era of Donald Trump — complete with rescissions bills clawing back congressionally appropriated funds — has kicked that skepticism into overdrive.
Asked about the distrust between the two parties, Democrats specifically pointed to rescissions. In July, the president signed a bill revoking $9.4 billion in funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.
Last week, Johnson told reporters he expects more rescissions “in the days ahead.”
“They’ve made it clear that they’re gonna continue to support rescissions, and that’s a violation of every norm we have here to back up bipartisan agreements,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told MSNBC. “So I think once they gutted the Democratic priorities out of the [Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies] bill in the rescissions package, it really, fundamentally, changed our ability to work together.”
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said more rescissions would be “a giant middle finger to everything that we’re trying to do right now, to have negotiations and talks.”
That posture has only been exacerbated by recent comments from top Republicans who have suggested they may never address the looming expiration of the Obamacare subsidies, despite previously saying they are open to discussing the matter once the government reopens.
During a call with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus last week, Johnson said it would “take a lot of work to build consensus ... if there is even any version of, a reformed version that could find consensus and pass."
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has echoed that sentiment. Earlier this month, he said Republicans “can’t make commitments or promises on the Covid subsidies, because that’s not something that we can guarantee that there are the votes there to do.”
If Thune referring to the tax credits as “Covid subsidies” wasn’t ominous enough for Democrats, his warning that there may not be enough votes to extend the subsidies certainly caught the attention of Democrats.
“I’m very skeptical,” Kim told MSNBC, “because they’ve had all year to work with us, to be able to address this, and they’re like, 'Oh, well, you know, it’s not gonna expire till the end of the year, we don’t need to get to it yet.'”
“There is a trust deficit here,” he added.
Adding insult to injury, Democrats have been quick to point out that Republicans, for years, have sought to repeal and replace Obamacare — a goal that was central to the 2013 government shutdown. That history, they say, depletes the GOP’s credibility on the issue.
“The Republicans do have a credibility issue when it comes to health care and the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said at a news conference Tuesday. “The American people know we’re standing on the side of lifting up their quality of life, and Republicans have spent the last 15 years, you are correct, trying to repeal and displace people off the Affordable Care Act.”
CORRECTION (Oct. 16, 2025, 10:09 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misidentified the state Sen. Andy Kim represents. He represents New Jersey, not California.