Impending U.S. Government Shutdown as Budget Talks Stall

"...With just over 24 hours until a funding lapse, Schumer and his fellow congressional leaders will join Trump at the White House for a last-chance meeting to stave off a shutdown. It’s not clear, however, that either party is interested in a dealmaking session...."

"...The bitter stalemate between Trump and Democrats has been building for months, with the minority party watching as the GOP slashed Medicaid to pay for tax cuts, deployed US troops to police blue cities, trample over Congress’s own spending authority and now, use the Department of Justice to go after political enemies like former FBI Director James Comey...."

"...Already, both parties are bracing for an ugly messaging battle over who voters will blame for the standoff...."

"...Even with the White House’s threat of permanent firings if the federal government does shut down, congressional Republicans are fiercely united in the belief that Democrats are instigating the fight and will pay the political price...."

"...But Democrats argue GOP leaders are underestimating their party’s anger at Trump and overestimating their skittishness of a shutdown...."

"...At the White House, officials have demonstrated little additional urgency for averting a shutdown despite the looming deadline — contending that it’s Democrats’ sole responsibility to end the standoff by agreeing to a no-strings-attached funding stopgap...."

"...That view has been bolstered in recent days by Democrats’ refusal to narrow their demands down from an insistence on vague health care concessions, most of which the White House flatly ruled out at the beginning of negotiations weeks ago...."

"...Trump in recent days has sought to seize on Democrats’ nonspecific messaging and define their demands in a way that’s most advantageous for him, accusing the party of seeking to fund heath care for undocumented immigrants, ease restrictions at the southern border and advance transgender policies...."

"...In reality, Democrats have sought none of those things, focusing instead on efforts to reverse key health care funding cuts that Republicans passed earlier this year and extend certain subsidies for Affordable Care Act enrollees...."

"...But Democratic leaders have so far been reluctant to publicly specify areas for compromise, and Trump officials and Republican leaders — convinced that they hold the political advantage heading toward Tuesday — have seen no reason to weaken their hardline demand of a clean funding measure...."

"...“Republicans are basically saying, let’s just keep the government open, that is the simplicity of their messaging, that is a reasonable sentence to most Americans,” said Doug Heye, a longtime GOP strategist. “Nobody gets it better than Mike Johnson, and he understands the political messaging is advantageous.”..."