Citing a lack of trust with Republicans, the president’s lack of buy-in and an apparent lack of will in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, Democrats balked Thursday at a new offer from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, in which he would guarantee a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies in exchange for Democrats voting to reopen the government.
“When the shutdown was just starting, we requested that,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., told MSNBC on Thursday. “That’s been almost three weeks ago, and they wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it. And now he has moved but everybody else has moved, too.”
Shaheen is among the Democratic moderates trying to negotiate a bipartisan path forward out of the shutdown. And Republicans view her as one of the most likely Democrats to ultimately support their funding bill. But Shaheen was clear this offer wouldn’t move her.
“It’s good progress, but it’s not what we need in order to open things back up again,” she said.
I trust no Republican’s word as long as Donald Trump is saying he refuses to extend health care tax subsidies.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Other Democrats agreed: Thune’s offer isn’t enough.
Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, also signaled that Thune’s suggestion of a guaranteed vote on the subsidies was progress, but he was clear that “it’s got to be more than a promise that we might get around to it later.”
So what would it take?
Durbin suggested a “very public statement with Senator Schumer.”
“A bipartisan statement would be helpful,” he continued, “but there are several elements that have to be included.”
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also threw cold water on the offer, saying Thune never even extended it to him.
“We’re not negotiating in public, plain and simple,” Schumer told reporters Thursday. “And Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point.”
Thune told MSNBC in an exclusive interview Wednesday night that he had offered a guaranteed vote on the subsidies in exchange for reopening the government, though his proposal seemed to be directed at rank-and-file Democrats, not Schumer. (In the interview, Thune suggested that “the quickest way” to end the shutdown was for five more Senate Democrats to vote with Republicans to pass the GOP’s funding bill, casting doubt on some larger bipartisan deal with Schumer.)
Thune was also noncommittal about the result of a vote on the Obamacare subsidies. “I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass,” Thune said. “I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote.”
But again, that doesn’t seem to be good enough for Democrats. And a big problem standing in the way of a deal is that Democrats say they don’t trust Republicans to follow through.
“I trust no Republican’s word as long as Donald Trump is saying he refuses to extend health care tax subsidies,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. “As much as I respect Leader Thune, he can’t vouch for the House or the White House.”
Durbin expressed a similar thought. “I have felt, for a long time, we’re not going to have a solution unless the president gives a nod of approval,” Durbin said.
And Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., told MSNBC that Democrats need a conversation with “the real decider” — the president — shrugging off Thune’s offer as “too cute by half.”
“You can’t tout an offer on TV and say you’ve done your offer,” Slotkin said.
Still, even as Democrats were quick to reject Thune’s proposal, there were subtle signs of progress — the start of a beginning of a process toward ending the shutdown.
For one, Thune’s offer is the first time Republican leaders have really moved off their refusal to negotiate at all. For the duration of the shutdown, GOP leaders have maintained that Democrats need to reopen government before they would discuss addressing expiring health care subsidies that, if they lapse, would result in the average Obamacare premium more than doubling.
Democrats say they want a deal on the subsidies before supporting a government funding bill, and publicly, they maintain that they want a reversal of the Medicaid cuts included in the GOP’s reconciliation bill. (Privately, Democrats acknowledge that undoing the Medicaid cuts is a farfetched ask.)
But in response to Thune’s offer on Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., maintained that a deal on the subsidies and a reversal of the Medicaid cuts was still the goal.
“We’ve been very clear that we need to decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries said on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" on Thursday, adding that he “hasn’t confirmed” that Thune’s is “an actual offer that has been made.”
Asked about the unlikeliness of Republicans rolling back those Medicaid cuts, Jeffries said Democrats want “an ironclad path” to address “the Republican health care crisis.”
“In terms of the ACA, this is a group of people, Republicans, who have tried to repeal it 70 different times,” Jeffries said.
“They can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer. We need a real path forward,” he added.
In response to Jeffries, a spokesperson for Thune posted on X: “Democrats will not take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
But even if Senate Democrats accepted Thune’s offer, there’s still the question of the House.
Asked about Thune’s proposal, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was noncommittal about guaranteeing a vote in his chamber.
“If they will reopen the government, we’ll look at that,” Johnson told MSNBC.
And pressed during a news conference Thursday whether he was refusing to guarantee a vote, Johnson said he wasn’t saying that, but he also didn’t commit to putting anything on the floor.
“I said none of us can guarantee an outcome on that. I have said consistently all along, this is part of the deliberative process. We’re gonna debate and discuss that. And there are debates and discussions going on, on our side of the aisle and on theirs. But to get everybody together and build that consensus is not possible until we get the government operating again,” Johnson said.
