President Donald Trump was to meet with Democratic Minority Leaders from the House and Senate ahead of the impending September 30 deadline to avert a federal government shutdown, but minutes before his speech to the United Nations he announced he was putting those talks on hold based on what he claimed are the Democrats' "unserious and ridiculous" demands.
Despite the Republicans having majority control over the House and Senate, Trump claimed Democrats "are threatening to shut down the Government of the United States."
In a lengthy and rambling social media post, he falsely alleged their demands for votes to keep the government open include: "over $1 Trillion Dollars in new spending to continue free healthcare for Illegal Aliens," "force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors," "have dead people on the Medicaid roles," "allow Illegal Alien Criminals to steal Billions of Dollars in American Taxpayer Benefits," "try to force our Country to again open our Borders to Criminals and to the World," "allow men to play in women’s sports," and, "essentially create Transgender operations for everybody."
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Trump also claimed Democrats are trying to eliminate the $50 Billion Dollar Rural and Vulnerable Hospital Fund, a concession Republicans agreed to when the ramifications of their $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare became public.
After repeating his claims and making multiple attacks on them left, Trump concluded, "I’ll be happy to meet with them if they agree to the Principles in this Letter. They must do their job! Otherwise, it will just be another long and brutal slog through their radicalized quicksand."
Democrats are attempting to negotiate with their congressional Republican colleagues and President Trump to re-add healthcare subsidies back into the federal government funding legislation that had been stripped out by the GOP.
Earlier this month, CNBC reported that the enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act's insurance premiums "are set to expire at the end of 2025 if Congress doesn’t intervene."
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"The disappearance of these enhanced premium tax credits — a so-called 'subsidy cliff' — would cause average premiums to rise by about 75%, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group."
Critics blasted the President's remarks.
"This is delusional but you don’t have to read the whole thing," wrote U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). "Boils down to: he’s shutting down the government because he thinks he’s a king."
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded to Trump's message, writing: "Trump Always Chickens Out. Donald Trump just cancelled a high stakes meeting in the Oval Office with myself and Leader Schumer. The extremists want to shut down the government because they are unwilling to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating America."
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