Vice President JD Vance has an offer for Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown, he told “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday.
Join onto the Republicans’ continuing resolution, and he’ll head to the Capitol “right now” to work with Democrats on extending insurance subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, the line in the sand Democratic party leaders have drawn in the government funding fight.
“But only after they’ve reopened the government,” Vance said. “You can’t reward this exercise in hostage taking, which is what we would be doing if we allow the government opening to be conditional on the Democrats’ policy disagreement.”
The federal government shut down in the early morning Wednesday, raising the specter of furloughs for up to 750,000 federal employees, per the Congressional Budget Office. Trump and other administration officials have threatened using the shutdown as a pretext to further cull the federal workforce if Democrats refuse to support legislation to reopen the government.
Democrats, meanwhile, are holding out in pursuit of an extension on soon-to-expire health insurance subsidies. The White House seemed open to negotiations Monday.
Vance played down the stakes of Democrats’ position Monday and called the party’s attempted negotiation “ extra preposterous.”
“That premium support program doesn’t even expire until next year. So why are you shutting down the government on October 1 because of a program that doesn’t even expire for another few months,” he said. “Let’s talk about it, let’s negotiate, let’s do what you do in Washington, D.C.”
