Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Monday the government shutdown is on its way to being one of the longest in history unless Democrats accept the House-passed, GOP-crafted stopgap bill to reopen the government.

“We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history, unless Democrats dropped their partisan demands and passed a clean, no-strings-attached budget to reopen the government and pay our federal workers,” Johnson said in a press conference on the 13th day of the government shutdown.

Congressional leaders have been locked in a standoff over government funding as Democrats demand that Republicans make concessions on health care, notably Affordable Care Act tax credits that are expiring at the end of the year. Republican leaders have refused to negotiate on health care during a shutdown, arguing that that Democrats must accept the “clean” funding stopgap the House passed in September — and which has failed to advance in the Senate seven times.

  • defunct_punk@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Damn, if only Republicans hadn’t shut the government down when Dems proposed simple, direct, and popular extensions to Medicare funding. Why are Republicans so content letting Americans suffer?

    • snooggums@piefed.world
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      18 hours ago

      Pretty sure this isn’t the first shutdown caused by Republicans wanting to screw people out of Obama care.

      They absolutely want people to suffer.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      18 hours ago

      The pain will be most-felt after midterms, when (at minimum) Democrats pick up a few seats and (at most) take control of the House of Representatives. Republicans need this, so they can blame the economy and healthcare premiums on Democrats. If they didn’t lie and pretend they wanted to help workers, no one would ever vote for them…