WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s administration is threatening mass firings of federal employees, putting maximum pressure on Senate Democrats in the hopes that they’ll drop the health care concessions they’re demanding in order to avoid a government shutdown.
But many Democratic candidates running to join the Senate are urging their party’s leadership not to back down, further squeezing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who faced widespread intraparty criticism after allowing a Republican-drafted spending bill to pass in March.
HuffPost contacted a dozen campaigns of major Senate Democratic candidates running in next year’s midterm elections. Nearly all of them said their party’s leadership ought to stand its ground and use its leverage to roll back the GOP’s Medicaid cuts and extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, a position that is fast becoming a litmus test within the Democratic Party and one that is shared by progressive candidates as well as those more aligned with the center of the party.
“Michiganders are seeing everything, especially their healthcare, get more and more expensive, and until Republicans agree to reverse their Medicaid cuts and make sure health care coverage is affordable for Michiganders, they can’t count on my vote,” Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens, a moderate Democrat who is running to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), said in a statement to HuffPost.
Her progressive rivals in the contested primary, Michigan State Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former public health official Abdul El-Sayed, both agreed.
“If Republicans need Democrats’ votes to keep the lights on, they need to come to the table and undo the damage they caused,” McMorrow said in a statement. “But if they’d rather play political games and shut down the government? That’s on them.”
Both Democratic candidates running to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith in Minnesota, another contested primary split into centrist and progressive camps, similarly called on Senate Democrats to hold the line and fight for health care policies in exchange for voting to fund the government.
“Republicans can’t get this done without Democratic votes, period,” Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said in a statement to HuffPost. “That’s the leverage Democrats have, and our leaders in Washington must use it. Democrats shouldn’t rubber stamp a bill that does nothing for working families just to save Republicans from themselves.”
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was even more direct.
“Don’t give in this time, don’t cave. Care more about democracy than decorum over in the Senate,” Craig told The Bulwark this week, referring to the decision by 10 Senate Democrats to allow a GOP funding bill to pass in March.
“I would not be a cheap date… I think they have to hold the line,” added former Texas Rep. Colin Allred, a moderate who is running to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), in an interview with CNN.
The sentiment is similar in the race for Senate in Maine. Three Democratic candidates running to oust GOP Sen. Susan Collins — oyster farmer Graham Platner, businessman Dan Kleban, and former congressional aide Jordan Wood — also indicated they would oppose the short-term GOP bill without health care provisions.
“I would draw a red line at protecting ACA subsidies,” Kleban said.
Government funding will expire on Sept. 30 at midnight if Congress doesn’t act. The House narrowly passed a “clean” bill keeping the government running at current spending levels last week, but Democrats rejected it and called it “dirty” because it does not address the issue of health care, including expiring tax credits for millions of people who get their health insurance through Obamacare. In the Senate, 60 votes are required to advance a bill, so Republicans need at least a handful of Democrats to cross the aisle and join them in voting to avert a shutdown.
On Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agencies to prepare for additional mass firings of federal employees in the event of a shutdown, upping the stakes for federal employees, the economy, and Democratic lawmakers who count government employees as their constituents.
But Schumer and other top Democrats dismissed the OMB memo, calling it “an attempt at intimidation” that will “either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back.”
“Donald Trump has spent the better part of a year chaotically and indiscriminately firing—and then rehiring—essential government workers. The constitution does not make the president a king, and a shutdown certainly doesn’t make him one either,” added Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in a statement.
Still, the unprecedented White House threat to lay off more federal employees in the event of a shutdown, rather than the standard practice of furloughing them until the shutdown is resolved, could put pressure on some Senate Democrats to accept the short-term GOP bill. The Senate is expected to vote again on the legislation when it returns from recess on Monday.
The standoff over government funding deepened earlier this week after Trump agreed to and then abruptly canceled a meeting with Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). He called their health care demands “unserious and ridiculous,” adding that no meeting “could possibly be productive.” The two Democratic leaders responded by accusing Trump of seeking to shut the government down by not negotiating at all.
For the moment, at least, Democrats across the country are united on government funding, going on the attack against their Republican opponents with less than a week until a potential shutdown.
“Iowans are facing rising prices on everything from electricity and groceries to health care ― and [GOP Senate candidate and Rep.] Ashley Hinson would rather shut down the government than do anything to address the crisis she created,” Iowa Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek said in a statement to HuffPost. “We deserve a Senator who will always prioritize Iowans over politics, and that’s what I’ll do in the Senate.”