Senator Lindsey Graham supports negotiations on Obamacare support as the government shutdown continues
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Sunday he supports the Senate’s vote to reopen the federal government but will not negotiate with Senate Democrats on their plan to expand Affordable Care Act benefits while the government remains closed.
“I’m ready to vote to open the government tomorrow,” Graham told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “To my Democratic friends: I will not vote to extend this support.”
The South Carolina senator added: “Let’s have a rational discussion, but not with a government shutdown. That’s up to you. If you want to keep it closed, that’s fine. It’s not going to change the way I deal with health care.”
Graham’s comments come on the 12th day of the government shutdown, with hundreds of thousands of federal workers still on furlough and vital government services operating without staff or with lower staffing numbers than usual.
The shutdown continues as the Senate deadlocks over whether to pass a temporary government funding measure.
The House has voted several times over the past two weeks on a stopgap funding measure backed by GOP leadership that has already passed the House and would keep government funding at previous levels through Nov. 21. Not enough Democrats voted with Republicans to overcome the 60-vote threshold to pass this bill.
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Meanwhile, Democrats have proposed a temporary funding measure that would keep the government open until October 31. This continuing resolution would also reverse the Medicaid cuts passed by Republicans earlier this year, and would extend support for the Affordable Care Act, which is set to expire at the end of the year.
Graham said Sunday that negotiating a potential extension of benefits during a government shutdown was a non-starter for him, referring to the 2018-2019 government shutdown, in which Republicans and President Donald Trump tried to force Democrats to pass funding for a border wall.
“You know, we’ve shut down the government for 35 days, and Republicans are trying to force Democrats to build the border wall,” Graham told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker. “Well, we were eventually able to build the wall, but not because we shut down the government.”
Graham added: “The subsidies we’re talking about here, if the Affordable Care Act is so affordable, why, every time I go back, are we spending $350 billion to keep it afloat?”
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., earlier in the program criticized Republicans for refusing to negotiate with Democrats, saying Trump spoke to Democratic leaders for only an hour about supporting the Affordable Care Act.
“I think it’s important for all Americans to know that this fight right now over a government shutdown is about one thing. It’s about the cost of their health care,” Kelly said. “Tens of millions of people — in fact, about 19 million people who get their health care from the Affordable Care Act, and their rates will skyrocket, they will become unaffordable.”
“The president negotiated for one hour, as far as we know, and House Republicans were gone for four weeks,” Kelly added. “John Thune, the Senate majority leader, sent people home for four days.”
He noted that the House of Representatives passed the temporary funding measure on September 19 and has not returned to Washington since then. On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told House lawmakers that he had extended their district’s term for at least another week, until mid-October.
Asked whether Democrats would vote to reopen the government if Republicans promised to hold a vote on extending support for the ACA once the government reopens, Kelly said firmly: “No.”
“Not now, no,” the Arizona senator said. “We need real negotiations, we need reform. We need to get this right for the American people. This is for a lot of people — their health care is going down the drain, and if we don’t get this right, things are going down the drain.”
Kelly added that for Democrats to reopen the government, they would need assurances that Republicans would not only vote to extend support, but that the two sides could agree on what the extension would look like.
“Getting a few votes without a certain outcome” was not the answer, Kelly said.
“All of this will require putting everyone in a room for a long period of time and arriving at a reasonable outcome,” he added.
In subsequent separate interviews on Fox News, Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries delved into their party’s positions on a government shutdown.
Johnson accused Democrats of not wanting to negotiate health care subsidies, saying Democrats were “consuming time” because Republicans were “always counting on using those four weeks in October to wrap up those discussions.”
Meanwhile, Jeffries explained why Democrats insist benefits must be extended now, rather than closer to their expiration date at the end of the year.
“Open enrollment begins November 1,” Jeffries said. “Tens of millions of Americans are getting notice right now that their premiums, copayments, and deductibles are about to explode, which is why we need to address them. Even [GOP Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene agrees that we must address this health insurance crisis now.
Johnson also responded to Rep. Greene’s concerns about health care, as she criticized her party’s reluctance to engage on the issue in recent days.
“I had a thoughtful conversation with my friend Marjorie Taylor Greene on the phone that night, a few nights ago, to let her know that there are several Republicans in Congress working around the clock on this,” Johnson told Fox News.