‘We will not be intimidated’: Democrats respond to White House as government shutdown looms

(DC Bureau) – The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has directed government agencies to “consider” mass layoffs in the event of a government shutdown next week, but Democrats say the directive doesn’t get them any closer to voting for a Republican spending bill.

“We will not be intimidated by these threats coming from the most extreme parts of the Trump Administration,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said.

Democrats say they are open to negotiations, but they accuse their GOP counterparts of failing to meet them at the table.

“The Democratic position is clear: We will meet and sit down anytime, anyplace, with anyone, including the president, who canceled the meeting,” Jeffries said, referring to a scheduled sit-down between President Donald Trump and Democratic Congressional leaders that Trump called off earlier this week.

At the time, Trump said he didn’t believe a meeting with “Radical Left Democrats” would be productive.

Government funding is set to run out at the end of the month. House Republicans have already passed a stopgap spending bill, but it needs 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats. The bill already failed in the Senate last week, but another vote is scheduled.

Democrats in the Senate are saying they won’t vote for a bill that doesn’t extend healthcare subsidies and doesn’t roll back cuts to Medicaid.

“They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable,” Trump has said of the Democrats’ demands.

Democrats, meanwhile, are blaming Republicans for the stalemate.

“If there’s a government shutdown, it will be at the foot and hands of Trump and Congressional Republicans,” Rep. Terri Sewell (D–Ala.) said.

Democratic leaders have also accused the White House of holding the threat of layoffs over government workers’ heads, essentially using them as pawns to pass their agenda.

“President Trump is engaged in mafia-style blackmail, with his threats ultimately harming the American people,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement Thursday.