Jeffries Says He Needs More Than a Handshake Deal on Health Care in First-Ever Meeting With Trump

Ahead of his first-ever meeting with President Trump, the House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, says he and Democrats will not settle for a handshake agreement on dealing with Affordable Care Act subsidies later this year. He says the issue must be addressed now. Senate Democrats — to the chagrin of more liberal lawmakers and party activists — allowed a funding agreement to pass through Congress earlier this year. Now, the opposition party is trying to use its leverage to extend Biden-era health insurance subsidies that are due to expire at the end of this year. Speaking to reporters ahead of his Monday afternoon meeting with the president, Mr. Jeffries accused Republicans of “lying” about Democrats’ demands. “No one can trust their word on health care,” Mr. Jeffries said of his Republican colleagues. “Are you kidding me? These people have been trying to repeal and displace people off the Affordable Care Act since 2010.”“On behalf of the American people, we’re supposed to simply take their word that they’re willing to negotiate? The American people know that would be an unreasonable thing for us to do,” he said. Mr. Jeffries will be joined by the two Senate leaders, Senators John Thune and Chuck Schumer, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House meeting with Mr. Trump. The clean funding agreement that Republicans are pushing to avoid a shutdown at the end of the day on Tuesday would be a simple seven-week extension of funding at current levels. The House passed the bill on a party-line basis on September 19 but Senate Democrats blocked the bill that same day. It normally takes 60 votes to advance a spending agreement to final passage. Mr. Thune told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker on Sunday that he and Republicans are not going to be adding any extension of health insurance subsidies ahead of the Tuesday deadline. He says there is no room for compromise. “Compromise on what, Kristen?” Mr. Thune asked with a smile. “This is a simple, seven-week funding resolution to allow us to do a normal appropriations process — something that Democrat senators have said that they want to see done.”Republicans have been maintaining that Democrats are threatening to shut down the government because they want to fund health care for “illegal immigrants.” It is a line that has been repeated by Mr. Johnson, Vice President JD Vance, and a top White House aide, Stephen Miller. What Democrats have asked for is a rollback of some of the Medicaid reforms enacted by Republicans as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which restricted federal funding for states that use state dollars to provide health insurance and healthcare for non-citizens. It is against federal law to use federal dollars for healthcare for non-citizens, and it is not something that Democrats are demanding. The counterproposal that Democrats have offered would roll back some of the Medicaid changes, including a provision on cost-sharing between the federal government and states, though it would not change the restriction on healthcare for non-citizens. “Federal law prohibits the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on providing health care to undocumented immigrants. Nowhere have Democrats suggested that we’re interested in changing federal law,” Mr. Jeffries told reporters Monday morning. In March, 10 Senate Democrats voted with Republicans to advance the spending agreement that kept the government open, much to the annoyance of their colleagues. One of those lawmakers, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who is retiring, did not close the door to backing the Republican-authored spending agreement if it comes to the floor before Tuesday night. She did vote to block the bill on September 19, however. “I’m not going to decide what I’m going to do until we see how this meeting goes this afternoon,” Ms. Shaheen told CNN on Monday morning. “We ought to be able to keep government open and ensure people can stay on their health insurance.”One Republican, Senator Rand Paul, has said he will not vote for any spending agreement. A Democrat, Senator John Fetterman, says he will vote for whatever the GOP puts on the floor. That math means that Mr. Thune will need at least seven other Democrats to break ranks and support a clean funding proposal before the shutdown deadline on Tuesday night.

Jeffries Says He Needs More Than a Handshake Deal on Health Care in First-Ever Meeting With Trump

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