US President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponents appeared to make little progress at a White House meeting aimed at averting a government shutdown as early as Wednesday, October 1, Reuters reported.
Both sides emerged from the meeting saying the other would be to blame if Congress fails to extend government funding beyond the deadline of Tuesday, September 30.
"I think we are heading towards a shutdown," Vice President J.D. Vance said.
Democrats say any deal to extend that deadline must also guarantee expiring health benefits, while Trump's Republicans insist that health care and government funding should be seen as separate issues.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the two sides "have very big differences."
Thousands of federal government employees could be laid off and many services would be shut down.
Budget disputes have become relatively routine in Washington over the past 15 years, often resolved at the last minute. But Trump's willingness to repeal or ignore spending laws passed by Congress has added a new dimension of uncertainty.
Trump has refused to spend billions of dollars approved by Congress and is threatening to extend his purge of the federal workforce if Congress allows the government to shut down. Only a few agencies have so far published plans detailing how they would proceed in the event of a shutdown.
They say $1.7 trillion is "discretionary" spending that funds agency operations, which is roughly a quarter of the government's total $7 trillion budget. Much of the rest goes to health care and pension programs and interest payments on the growing $37.5 trillion debt.
Ahead of the White House meeting, Democrats proposed a plan that would extend the current funding by seven to 10 days, according to Democratic Party sources. That could buy time to craft a more permanent deal.
That's shorter than the Republican-backed one that would extend funding until Nov. 21.
After returning to the Capitol, Schumer told reporters he would not accept a shorter funding bill.
Senate Republican Leader John Thune tried to pressure Democrats by scheduling a vote on Tuesday on the Republican bill, which has already failed in the Senate once.
There have been 14 partial government shutdowns since 1981, most of which have lasted just a few days. The most recent was the longest, lasting 35 days in 2018 and 2019 over an immigration dispute during Trump's first term.
This time, health care is at stake. The roughly 24 million Americans who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act will see their costs increase if Congress does not extend temporary tax breaks that expire at the end of this year.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Congress should make those tax breaks permanent now, as higher health insurance premiums are finalized and the new enrollment period begins Nov. 1.
"We believe that simply accepting the Republican plan to continue the attacks and cuts to health care is unacceptable," Jeffries said at a news conference Monday.
Republicans are willing to look at the issue, but not as part of a temporary spending adjustment plan.
"They had some ideas that I actually thought were reasonable, and they had some ideas that the president "What is not sensible is to use these ideas as leverage and shut down the government," Vance said.
Democrats want to energize their voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake, and they generally support the push for health care.
But Democratic aides have privately expressed concerns that a shutdown could spark a public backlash if Democrats don't effectively defend their position and instead sound like they're simply opposed to what Trump wants — a stance that Republicans like Thune have called "Trump derangement syndrome."