华盛顿-作为一种可能联邦政府即将关闭国会的民主党领导人要求与唐纳德·特朗普总统谈判结束他们所谓的“你的决定”,如果在月底截止日期前没有采取行动，关闭政府办公室。
参议员查克·舒默和众议员哈基姆·杰弗里斯周六表示，在特朗普的坚持下，共和党人已经拒绝参加会谈。民主党人正在努力维护医疗保健项目作为让政府在9月30日融资截止日期后继续运转的任何协议的一部分。
“我们写信要求举行一次会议，讨论你关闭联邦政府的决定，因为共和党希望继续摧毁美国人民的医疗保健，”两名纽约民主党人写道。
他们说:“民主党人在我们的立场上是明确和一贯的。”。“我们准备努力达成两党支出协议，改善美国家庭的生活，解决共和党的医疗保健危机。”
白宫没有立即做出回应。
由共和党人控制的国会未能在议员们周五离开城镇休息之前解决资金问题。
众议院批准了共和党的一项提案，将联邦政府的资金维持到11月份，但这项措施在参议院失败。民主党提出的一项增加医疗基金的提案也失败了。
这一切都让国会和白宫没有轻松摆脱僵局的方法，这种僵局可能会在不到两周的时间内，即当前预算年度和资金到期时关闭。特朗普的第一个任期在2018-2019年经历了一个月的关闭，这是联邦历史上最长的一次。
特朗普周五预测，可能会有“一段时间的封闭国家”。他说，政府将继续“照顾”军队和社会保障支付关闭。
共和党人坚持认为，他们不应该为任何可能的关闭负责，并将责任推给民主党人。
众议院议长·迈克·约翰逊，洛杉矶。和参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩(John Thune)提出了短期措施，这是国会解决这种僵局的典型方式。随着谈判的进行，这将使政府运作保持在目前的水平。
虽然众议院能够在主要是党派路线的投票中勉强通过临时拨款措施，但在参议院，这一过程可能需要更高的60票门槛，这意味着需要共和党和民主党的支持。
民主党人正在努力保护医疗保健项目。民主党的提案将延长将于今年年底到期的强化医疗保险补贴，并取消医疗补助计划中包含的削减共和党的大减税和削减开支法案今年早些时候颁布。
共和党人表示，民主党人要求扭转医疗补助计划的变化是不可能的，但他们也表示，在未来几个月里，还有时间解决医疗保险补贴问题。
Democrats demand meeting with Trump as government shutdown looms
WASHINGTON --As a possiblefederal shutdown looms, the Democratic leaders of Congress are demanding a meeting withPresident Donald Trumpto negotiate an end to what they call “your decision” to shutter government offices if no action is taken by the end-of-the month deadline.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said Saturday that Republicans, at Trump's insistence, haverefused to enter talks. Democrats are pushing to preservehealth care programsas part of any deal to keep government running past the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
"We write to demand a meeting in connection with your decision to shut down the federal government because of the Republican desire to continue to gut the healthcare of the American people," the two New York Democrats wrote.
“Democrats have been clear and consistent in our position,” they said. “We are ready to work toward a bipartisan spending agreement that improves the lives of American families and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis.”
There was no immediate response from the White House.
Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, failed to address the funding issue before lawmakers left town Friday for a break.
The House approved a Republican proposal to keep the federal government funded into November, but the measurefailed in the Senate. A Democratic proposal that would have boosted health care funds also failed.
It all leaves Congress and the White House with no easy way out of the standoff that threatens a shutdown in less than two weeks when the current budget year and funding expires. Trump's first term in office saw a monthlong shutdown, the longest in federal history, in 2018-2019.
Trump predicted Friday that there could be “a closed country for a period of time.” He said the government will continue to “take care” of the military and Social Security payments in a closure.
Republicans have insisted they are not to blame for any possible shutdown, turning it back on Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., have put forward the short-term measure, which is a typical way that Congress resolves such logjams. That would keep government operations running at current levels as talks get underway.
While the House was able to narrowly pass the temporary funding measure on a mostly party-line vote, in the Senate the process can require a higher 60-vote threshold that means support is needed from Republicans and Democrats.
Democrats are working to protecthealth care programs.The Democratic proposal would extend enhanced health insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, plus reverse Medicaid cuts that were included inRepublicans’ big tax break and spending cut billenacted earlier this year.
Republicans have said the Democrats' demands to reverse the Medicaid changes are a nonstarter, but they have also said there is time to address the health insurance subsidy issue in the months ahead.
