Shutdown is "So Completely Unnecessary": Republican Senator Ron Johnson

Looming federal government shutdowns have become almost routine in Washington. In March, Congress was just days away from a partial shutdown before lawmakers reached a spending deal to fund parts of the government. It was another instance of Congress putting off hard decisions until the last minute.

Now, with the Oct. 1 deadline looming, Congress faces another standoff over government funding. The Republican-led House passed a stopgap bill that would extend funding through Nov. 21, but to pass in the Senate, the bill needs the support of at least eight Democrats. Democratic leaders are insisting on the inclusion of health care provisions absent from the Republican-led bill: an extension of premium Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies — which are set to expire at the end of the year — and a reversal of cuts to Medicaid funding that were enacted earlier this year. They also want new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s ability to refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress.

Bloomberg Balance of Power hosts Joe Mathieu and Tyler Kendall speak about the looming shutdown with Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

President Donald Trump threatened mass firings of federal workers as the US hurtles toward a shutdown with Democrats and Republicans at an impasse over funding the government.

“We may do a lot and that’s only because of the Democrats,” Trump said in response to a question about the number of government employees who could be dismissed during a shutdown. The White House last week directed agencies to draw up plans for widespread firings if the government closed down. So far, no agencies have explicitly called for terminations in their shutdown plans.

With just hours to go until a midnight deadline, the deadlock over spending threatens to paralyze many US government operations for only the 14th time in modern history, causing the suspension of services for Americans and paychecks for federal workers. Political fallout could be widespread for both Trump and Democrats ahead of next year’s critical midterm elections.

“They want to try to bully us — they are not going to succeed — into taking their partisan bill,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “That’s why we are heading into a shutdown.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, similarly predicted that a shutdown is imminent.

Although last-minute spending deals have averted several other threatened shutdowns in recent years, the stakes are especially high now, with the White House threatening to fire employees rather than furlough them, and Democratic leaders under intense pressure from progressives in the party to stand up to Trump.

Stocks fluctuated Tuesday morning with the prospect of a shutdown stoking concerns about how long it’ll go on and what impact the possibly delayed release of key economic data will have on the Federal Reserve’s upcoming interest-rate decisions.

Johnson accused Democrats of playing politics with their effort to renew health-care tax credits, saying it doesn’t have to be resolved until the end of the year when the tax credits expire.

“Open the government and then we’ll have all the discussions,” he said. “But right now that is a red herring.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused Republicans of being unwilling to participate in bipartisan negotiations, telling CNBC Tuesday that his party refuses to be a part of “a my-way-or-the-highway” approach.

Trump told Politico that he didn’t think the country would blame him if the government closed down “because people that are smart see what’s happening. The Democrats are deranged.”

Republicans in recent days have repeated the phrase “Schumer shutdown” in an attempt to pin the blame on their Democratic opponent.

“Chuck Schumer needs a Schumer shutdown and I think that’s what we’re probably careening toward,” Senate Republican Leader John Thune told CNBC on Tuesday.

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