'Shameful:' GOP leaders frustrated with Dems on tenth day of shutdown

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(The Center Square) – U.S. senators have left town for the weekend and will not vote again on a federal funding bill until Tuesday, meaning the ongoing government shutdown will stretch into its third week.

Meanwhile, today marks the last time that over 700,000 civilian federal workers will receive a partial paycheck, leaving federal employees either furloughed or working without pay until the government reopens. 

About 1.3 million active-duty service members, who normally would receive their pay Monday, will be left out in the cold unless Congress passes a bill to prevent that.

“Judging by their behavior right now, Democrats don’t appear to be in any rush to end this pain,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Friday. “It is shameful… [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer is hurting real Americans for his own political survival.”

Johnson added bluntly “every Democratic senator who’s going along with this – you lack the moral fortitude to do the right thing.”

Senate Democrats have blocked Republicans’ House-passed Continuing Resolution seven times now. The clean legislation would extend government funding for the next seven weeks, buying time for lawmakers to finish the annual appropriations process.

Democratic leaders don’t object to anything in the bill; rather, they object to what it does not include. 

They argue Republicans’ proposal would “gut” health care because it fails to address the expiring pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare Premium Tax Credits. Senate Democrats’ doomed counterproposal includes a permanent extension of the enhanced PTC and other partisan policy riders, costing up to $1.4 trillion. 

Millions of Americans could see their health care premiums spike at the end of the year if the Obamacare PTC is not extended. While Republican leaders have acknowledged this fact and indicated openness to discussion, they will only do so after the government reopens. They also argue that it is inappropriate for Democrats to use a complicated December policy issue to “hold the government hostage.”

“This is the first time in history, the first time in the history of the United States Congress, that a party has shut down the government over a clean CR,” Johnson said. “Millions of Americans are experiencing real pain because of these political games.”

The last time the government shut down occurred nearly seven years ago, and it lasted a record 35 days.