
Showdown at the White House: No Deal on Shutdown Deadline
Republican and Democratic leaders left the White House on Monday empty-handed after a tense meeting with President Donald Trump, failing to reach an agreement that would prevent a looming government shutdown.
The hour-long session was intended to forge a compromise to keep federal funding flowing. Instead, both sides walked away more entrenched. With the clock ticking toward the October 1 deadline, Vice President JD Vance emerged from the talks with a stark prediction:
“I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing. I hope they change their mind.”
Vance blasted Democrats for pushing what he described as “a $1.5 trillion spending package” that would funnel “hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal aliens for their health care, while Americans are struggling to pay their own bills.”
Democrats, for their part, dismissed the claims as false and framed their position as a defense of ordinary Americans’ health care access—fifteen years after the Affordable Care Act first reshaped the system.
“There was a frank and direct discussion with the President of the United States and Republican leaders. But significant and meaningful differences remain,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said. “Democrats are fighting to protect the health care of the American people, and we are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut it—period.”
Congress faces a hard deadline: approve a temporary funding measure by midnight Sunday or trigger a partial shutdown. The House has already advanced an extension, but the bill stalled in the Senate. Republicans are pressing for a “clean” stopgap through November 21, free of policy riders. Democrats countered with a plan that ties the extension to permanent Obamacare tax credits—something GOP leaders flatly reject.
After the meeting, Vance appeared alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Senate Minority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), and OMB Director Russ Vought, presenting a united Republican front. Thune held up a copy of the GOP’s proposal and bristled at accusations of partisanship.
“To me, this is purely a hostage-taking exercise on the part of the Democrats,” Thune said. “We’re willing to talk about tax credits and reforms. But right now, this is a hijacking.”
Democrats struck a cautiously hopeful note afterward, even as they accused Republicans of excluding them from the process.
“Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we’ve done this before,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. Still, he added, “I think for the first time, the president heard our objections and why we need a bipartisan bill.”
Vance, however, voiced skepticism that Trump was hearing these arguments for the first time and accused Democrats of trying to lock in pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies under the guise of negotiation.
With neither side budging, the standoff sets the stage for a bruising week in Washington—one that could end with the government grinding to a halt.