Government barreling toward shutdown with Congress in partisan deadlock

Geoff Bennett:

The federal government is barreling toward a shutdown at the stroke of midnight as Congress remains in a partisan deadlock. The Senate is voting at this hour on last-minute measures to keep the government running, but they are all expected to fail.

Amna Nawaz:

Democrats are demanding a bill that reverses cuts to Medicaid and prevents health insurance premiums from going up at the end of the year. Meanwhile, President Trump has threatened to use a shutdown to reduce the size of the federal work force permanently.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports.

Lisa Desjardins:

Hours away from a government shutdown, a Democratic show of force today, as they stand firm, refusing to pass Republicans' bill to fund the government, in opposition to President Trump's actions and looming health care cuts.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA):

We're ready to work in a bipartisan way to keep government open, to lower costs and to save health care.

Lisa Desjardins:

All part of a blitz of House Democratic events today, while, inside, House Republicans are away, the halls on that side empty and the chamber shuttered after they passed their funding bill last week and are daring Senate Democrats to keep rejecting it.

With funding set to expire at midnight, Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer putting the onus on President Trump.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY):

He is using Americans as political pawns. He is admitting that he is doing the firing of people if God forbid it happens.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD):

Good afternoon, everyone.

Lisa Desjardins:

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune drew a hard line, indicating he won't hold talks until Democrats relent.

Sen. John Thune:

The negotiation happens when the government's open. So let's keep the government open, and then we will have the negotiation.

Lisa Desjardins:

A government shutdown would be the first since 2018 and 2019, during President Trump's first term, when his demands for border wall funding led to a record 35-day impasse. President Trump today doubled down on his threat of possible mass firings, instead of just temporary furloughs.

Donald Trump, President of the United States: So the last person that wants a shutdown is us now. With that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.

Lisa Desjardins:

Consequences that Republican lawmakers defended.

We have never had mass firings during a shutdown before.

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH):

We have never had Democrats that are so insane as this, because this is going to last a long — if they shut down the government tonight, my prediction is it will go on for a long, long time.

Lisa Desjardins:

Mr. Trump and his agencies have taken much of their shutdown fight online.

The main page of the Department of Housing and Urban Development featured a seemingly unprecedented bright red banner pinning a shutdown on radical left Democrats, language that has raised flags as a possible ethics or legal violation, this after the president posted controversially on social media with fake A.I.-generated video that played vulgar words and depicted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a sombrero.

The New York congressman responded.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY):

Mr. President, the next time you have something to say about me, don't cop out the racist and fake A.I. video. When I'm back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.

(Cheering)

(Applause)

Lisa Desjardins:

A few hundred feet away, we sat with a group of protesting former federal workers fired in the DOGE purge, who all said they want a shutdown.

Samuel Port, Former Federal Worker:

By shutting down the government, it will help at least put an opposition to what this administration is currently doing.

Sarah Swift, Former Federal Worker:

We have to get to a place where we're not signing a check on the Republicans doing whatever they want.

Lisa Desjardins:

They want pushback and opposition to Trump, dynamics that are leading to a shutdown. But as with others at the Capitol, these former federal workers did not know the way out of one.

Amna Nawaz:

Joining us from more on this, our congressional correspondent, Lisa Desjardins, and White House correspondent Liz Landers.

Lisa, over to you first.

Now, you have covered a number of these near-shutdowns and shutdowns. Give us the latest on where we are now.

Lisa Desjardins:

A week ago, I was saying 80 percent chance. We're now at 99 percent chance. We are going to see a shutdown. That 1 percent, act of God, maybe this is a dream. Basically, we are going into a shutdown.

Let me show you what's happening right now at this moment. On the Senate floor, they are taking essentially show votes of the Democratic version of keeping government funding, with the Democrats demands on it about health care and other things. They will also have a vote on the Republican version, which does not have that in it.

We expect both of those to fail. What does it look like on the House side right now? We have nothing to show you because they're not in town. The House is out until at least Friday and actually more likely out until next week.

So what happens here? Well, the Senate plans to stay in town more or less, have votes probably Saturday. I don't expect anything fundamentally to change, though. Now, so when you think about shutdowns this century, there are two kinds, some that are about one day or three days' long. And if you get past that window, which we're going to, then we get into two-week- or three-week-long shutdowns.

What is the way out potentially? Already, there are very small voices in the Senate. Maybe some bipartisan groups of senators can get together, but that's not a yet tangible kind of crystallizing force. One senior Democratic source told me, right now, they are minute by minute, hour by hour. This shutdown could be long.

Amna Nawaz:

Liz, meanwhile, we have heard from the president and other Republicans. One of their main talking points here is that Democrats are shutting down the government to fund free health care for unauthorized immigrants. What do we need to know about that claim?

Liz Landers:

Well, this is something that we have heard Republicans both on Capitol Hill and at the White House. We heard the vice president say this yesterday to a group of reporters, and then President Trump has said this several times as well.

He reiterated this earlier today in the Oval Office. I believe we have some in that video.

Donald Trump:

One of the things they want to do is, they want to give incredible Medicare, Cadillac, the Cadillac Medicare, to illegal immigrants. And what that does is, it keeps them coming into our country like they do in California. And no country can afford that, no country.

Liz Landers:

Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to be enrolled in federally funded health care coverage in this country. That includes Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, the child health care program, and even some of those Affordable Care Act subsidies.

So this claim that the president is making is already barred under federal law right now. There are some few exceptions to that. That includes Medicaid reimbursing hospitals for giving emergency services to people. If you show up at a hospital and you are having a heart attack, you're not going to be asked your immigration status before a doctor treats you.

So they will reimburse that through the Medicaid system. Also, some states have some of their own policies. California, which is one of the states that the president makes reference to, has allowed 1.6 million immigrants in that state through a program that Governor Gavin Newsom implemented a few years ago to get on Medicaid coverage.

But that is funded through the state. And he is also having to change that program. Now, we reached out earlier today to Senator Patty Murray. She's one of the senior most Democrats. And she said that, look, Republicans are lying about the health care changes that Democrats are fighting for right now.

Lisa made mention of this. She said they, the Democrats, are focused on the health care premiums that may double soon. And President Trump, I would add, was asked to clarify this exact point earlier today. He did not directly answer that question.

Amna Nawaz:

So, Liz, we have Democrats blaming Republicans, Republicans blaming Democrats. How are the American public looking at this?

Liz Landers:

So, PBS had a poll with NPR and Marist that came out just earlier today. And we asked some of these questions about how the American public is viewing this.

One of those questions was, what should members of Congress do? And in the poll, it found that it's about 50/50 split, that Americans believe, 50 percent believe that members of Congress should compromise to avoid a shutdown, while 49 percent of Americans say that members of Congress should stand on principle.

So that may explain why we are inching closer to this shutdown. Parties are hearing a split from their voters on this. And then another question that was asked was about, who is to blame if this shutdown happens? More Americans said that Republicans will be to blame at 38 percentage points. But Democrats will still get about 27 percent of the blame in the eyes of Americans. And a third of Americans, 31 percent, say that both parties are to blame.

And just a final thought, Amna, one independent voter told "News Hour" that, while both parties will try to score political points from a shutdown — quote — "You all look like idiots."

Amna Nawaz:

Lisa, over to you. What happens next?

Lisa Desjardins:

OK, at midnight is when shutdown procedures begin. Agencies will send out guidance. Most of those agencies will have about half-a-day to actually get the shutdown in motion. And then furloughs will begin at that point.

Now what's interesting and unusual about this shutdown right now, Amna, is some of those agencies haven't still, as I speak to you, not posted their plans. That includes the National Park Service.

Our producer Kyle Midura reached out to them and they got back to us and said, we're — our plan for the shutdown is currently being reviewed and updated and watched for it to be posted. Well, we don't know exactly what the National Park Service, something obviously many Americans have made their plans for. We're not exactly sure. Usually, they close.

Some of the former employees are saying, for safety, they should close, but we don't know yet. Now, one other thing, let's talk about the cost of this shutdown. What's ahead for us? Let's take a look. First of all, according to the Congressional Budget Office, new numbers out today, they estimate about 750,000 employees will be furloughed on the average day.

That's $400 million in salary each day that the government will ultimately pay, but will not get work for, the last shutdown, $3 billion in economic losses. Again, that was a record long shutdown, but it was more narrow than this one. This one involves more agencies. We could be in for a very bumpy ride, a lot of questions ahead.

Amna Nawaz:

A lot of questions ahead.

Lisa Desjardins, Liz Landers, thank you, as always.