Shutdown showdown: Midnight deadline nears with no deal to fund government

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00:00All right, so it's 9.30 in the morning. We're 14 and a half hours away from a government shutdown.

00:05And here in the Dirksen Senate office building, it's really kind of business as usual.

00:09The Judiciary Committee just convened for a hearing on public safety.

00:14Even though the Senate has yet to get done, it's single most important piece of business they have, which is to fund the government.

00:23Democrats want Affordable Care Act insurance premium tax credits extended before they expire at the end of the year.

00:29They also want to reverse Medicaid cuts Republicans approved in July.

00:33Come November 1st, there will be 20 million Americans that are going to start seeing what the rates are going to be next year.

00:39It's all going to be responsibility of the Republicans for raising insurance premiums on 20 million Americans.

00:44I have to say to my Democrat colleagues, there is no reason for a shutdown.

00:49I mean, it's going to threaten Medicaid reimbursements. It's going to threaten VA services.

00:53It's going to threaten USDA farming services.

00:56I'm just thinking about things in my state that are really, really important.

00:59Military service members pay, national parks. I mean, I just go on and on.

01:02All right, so it's 9.55, and in just a couple of minutes, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is going to walk down the East Capitol steps,

01:09and he's going to have a press conference to share the Democratic message.

01:12But visually, what he's trying to do is show everyone that House Democrats are here and willing to negotiate,

01:19but House Republicans are not.

01:21Speaker Johnson has not called the House back into session since they passed that continuing resolution on September 19th.

01:29So House Republicans are home right now, House Democrats are here, and they're trying to use that to their advantage.

01:35They're on vacation because they'd rather shut the government down than protect the health care of the American people.

01:42That's unfathomable.

01:43At noon, Democrats entered the House chamber and tried to pass a continuing resolution that includes the health care measures they're demanding.

01:51It was just for show because the House was only hosting a pro forma session,

01:55which is when they gavel in and immediately gavel out as a formality when they're out of town.

01:59So it's 2 o'clock.

02:01The Democrats are having another press conference.

02:03They're having a few today to get the messaging out.

02:05This one in particular is about women's health care.

02:10So the big question here is who's going to win this political fight?

02:13Democrats believe voters will blame Republicans for not being willing to meet them halfway on health care.

02:19Republicans believe the American people will blame Democrats for shutting down the government

02:23rather than passing a continuing resolution and then negotiating while the government is funded.

02:29If you want to have a debate on health care, we can have a debate on health care.

02:32You don't hold the government hostage over that.

02:34That's exactly what they're doing.

02:35So I think it's a terrible tactic.

02:40And whatever comes after midnight is on Chuck Schumer.

02:43This kind of shutdown is a self-inflicted, totally unnecessary, avoidable wound that Donald Trump,

02:54not necessarily my Republican college, but Donald Trump is bringing on the American people.

02:59So later this afternoon or this evening in the Senate,

03:02we expect a couple more votes on government funding, but the result is a foregone conclusion.

03:08Nothing they vote on is going to be approved because they have already voted on both these bills.

03:14The clean CR brought forward by the Republicans, the CR with the health care additions brought forward by Democrats.

03:20These are purely show votes to make a point.

03:24We leave you with this thought.

03:26When the government shuts down, federal employees will not get paid.

03:30Congressional staff will not get paid.

03:32But members of Congress will keep getting paychecks straight to their bank account.

03:37I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Hour News.

03:39For more reporting, download the SAN app.

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