{"id":13876,"date":"2025-09-30T12:02:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-careening-into-a-shutdown\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:02:05","slug":"capitol-agenda-careening-into-a-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-careening-into-a-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Careening into a shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

All signs point to the government shutting down at midnight Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Just when Monday\u2019s meeting between Trump and congressional leaders brought a glimmer of a potential offramp \u2014 the president expressed openness to extending Obamacare credits<\/a>, Democrats\u2019 asking price \u2014 it was back to the status quo hours later. Trump posted a deepfake video<\/a> Monday night of Chuck Schumer talking about why voters hate Democrats and Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero and mustache, which Jeffries called bigoted.<\/p>\n

Now, just 16 hours until the deadline, there\u2019s no reason to expect a breakthrough. And leaders haven\u2019t set a follow-up meeting on the impasse.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any reason for optimism out of Monday\u2019s meeting, it was the discussion about extending Obamacare credits. However, Vice President JD Vance insisted those talks would need to happen in the \u201ccontext of an open government,\u201d stressing that a shutdown would impede them.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s willingness reflects the desire from some GOP members to prioritize the extension, but with some tweaks to make them more palatable to conservatives. Republicans have been calling for income caps on the subsidies and for potentially adding language restricting the tax credits from covering abortions.<\/p>\n

While Democrats have stayed away from endorsing any modifications to the credits, the top Democrat on House Ways and Means, Rep. Richie Neal of Massachusetts, opened the door Monday to negotiating income limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the question of subsidies for people that are making half a million dollars \u2014 I mean, that should be subject to a discussion and negotiation as well, but that shouldn\u2019t become the pretense for shutting down the government,\u201d Neal told Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

Any further talks about Obamacare, if they happen, will almost certainly happen with the government closed. And Trump\u2019s inflammatory social media posts don\u2019t bode well for potential negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cBigotry will get you nowhere,\u201d Jeffries posted on X<\/a> in response to Trump\u2019s video. \u201cWe are NOT backing down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate will vote again on the House-passed stopgap and a Democratic proposal for a CR Tuesday; both are expected to fail again on largely party-line votes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed cloture to set up another vote on the GOP CR for Wednesday.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Dems\u2019 shutdown messaging:<\/b> Democrats plan to flood the zone Tuesday ahead of a near certain shutdown. House Democratic leaders will hold a press event at 10 a.m. on the Capitol steps. Tri-caucus chairs will host a press conference at 11 a.m. House Democrats will caucus around 12:15 p.m. Whip Katherine Clark will have a press conference at 2 p.m. House Democrats will also host a digital media row with former CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Will the NDAA cross the finish line?: <\/b>Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is pleading with senators to finish work on the annual defense policy bill. But it could get sidelined if the government shuts down as expected. Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on House Armed Services, predicted the Senate probably won\u2019t pass the House version of the NDAA.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Wu, Mia McCarthy and Connor O\u2019Brien <\/i>contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All signs point to the government shutting down at midnight Tuesday night. Just when Monday\u2019s meeting between Trump and congressional leaders brought a glimmer of a potential offramp \u2014 the president expressed openness to extending Obamacare credits, Democrats\u2019 asking price \u2014 it was back to the status quo hours later. Trump posted a deepfake video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}