by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Washington D.C. Bureau Staff
(Worthy News) – With just hours remaining before a partial government shutdown, talks between President Donald Trump and congressional leaders collapsed Monday without a deal, leaving federal agencies bracing for a funding lapse at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Democratic and Republican leaders emerged from the high-stakes White House meeting pointing fingers at each other over the impasse, which centers on health care spending and the future of pandemic-era Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.
Vice President J.D. Vance accused Democrats of “hostage-taking,” saying they were willing to shut down the government unless Republicans agreed to a permanent extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies and a rollback of Medicaid changes. “We’re not going to let Democrats shut down the government unless we give them everything they want,” Vance told reporters.
Democrats countered that Republicans were refusing to protect the health care of ordinary Americans. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the GOP proposal to pass a “clean” seven-week continuing resolution (CR) ignored the looming crisis of higher premiums, rural hospital closures, and Medicaid cuts. “Later means never,” Schumer warned. “Republicans don’t want to do this, but we have to get it done.”
The enhanced ACA subsidies, first expanded under COVID-19 relief measures, cap household insurance premiums at 8.5% of income. Without congressional action, the subsidies expire at year’s end, but notices of premium hikes–estimated at an average of $400 more per month–begin going out on October 1.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rejected Democrats’ demand for more than $350 billion in new health spending as part of the short-term bill, saying the Democratic counteroffer amounted to $1.5 trillion in extra spending over 10 years. “We’re not going to do that,” Johnson said.
Trump, who has alternated in past shutdown battles between dealmaker and hardliner, listened closely to both sides but offered no commitments. Allies say he believes Democrats will ultimately shoulder the political blame if the shutdown begins.
The White House budget office, meanwhile, has instructed agencies to prepare furlough lists and contingency plans. Some lawmakers, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), voiced pessimism that any deal could be reached in time. “Nobody seems to think that there was anything good there,” she said after the talks.
If no agreement is reached, this would mark the first government shutdown since 2019, when a border security standoff produced the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
A Christian pastor detained in Nicaragua since July 2025 has been released from prison but placed under house arrest along with five other Christian believers, Worthy News established on Thursday.
An injured Christian pastor in eastern India says recalling Bible verses gave him strength to survive hours of brutal abuse by a Hindu mob that accused him of converting Hindus to Christianity.
U.S. forces carried out five sets of precision strikes against Islamic State targets across Syria between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, the U.S. military’s U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday.
U.S. forces carried out five sets of precision strikes against Islamic State targets across Syria between Jan. 27 and Feb. 2, the U.S. military’s U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced on Feb. 5 that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, marking the first such swap in five months and the most tangible outcome yet from U.S.-brokered talks held in Abu Dhabi. The exchange followed multiple days of trilateral negotiations involving delegations from Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow.
The Supreme Court of the United States on Wednesday declined to take up a legal challenge to California’s newly drawn congressional map, allowing the state to proceed with district lines that effectively eliminate five Republican-held U.S. House seats.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iran has entered negotiations with the United States because it fears potential military action, as both sides prepare for high-stakes talks expected to take place in Oman. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Trump said Tehran “doesn’t want us to hit them,” adding that a U.S. naval fleet is in the region as pressure increases.