No End in Sight to Government Shutdown

The Senate adjourned for the day on Wednesday with no resolution on how to reopen the government. Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown. A vote to end the government shutdown failed earlier Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party's demands to fund health care subsidies that President Trump and other Republican leaders have refused to extend, the AP reports.

• At issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn't extend them—which would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for health insurance premiums, according to a KFF analysis.
• Republicans including Vice President JD Vance accused Democrats of holding government services "hostage" and said they would be willing to talk about extending the credits, but only after the shutdown ended. "Let's reopen the government before we have our negotiation about health care policy," Vance said Wednesday, per the Washington Post.

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune says that his message for senators trying to cobble together a bipartisan solution for funding the government is "when you have critical mass, come and talk to me." That means any bipartisan fix will need support from at least eight Democrats. Thune gave no sign a negotiation was happening among leaders and appeared resigned to allowing the funding bill to sit in the Senate for at least several days, the AP reports.
• Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska confirmed Wednesday that he is part of a group of GOP senators working on a plan to extend the subsidies, Politico reports. He said that talks have been ongoing for weeks and that the group's proposals are not being raised in negotiations to end the shutdown.

• The New York Times reports that the administration moved to "maximize the pain" of the shutdown for Democrats on Wednesday, with officials preparing for mass layoffs and moving to halt or cancel $26 billion in funding for projects in Democratic-led states.
• On video screens in the White House briefing room, the Trump administration played videos depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero. One of the deepfake videos, which had been shared by Trump on social media and were widely condemned as racist, began playing on monitors in the briefing room Wednesday afternoon. One deepfake video has Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer implying that Democrats seek to give free health care to immigrants in the country illegally while Jeffries, standing beside him, is depicted as wearing a Mexican sombrero and fake mustache. A second video, showing a clip of Jeffries condemning the first as "disgusting," again depicts him that way, with an all-Trump mariachi band playing behind him.
• Vance played down the videos at the briefing Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. "The president is joking, and we're having a good time," he said, adding that if Jeffries helps "reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop." In a post on X, Jeffries said, "JD Vance thinks we will surrender to the Republican effort to gut healthcare because of a Sombrero meme. Not happening Bro." He shared a meme of his own superimposing an image of Vance with a fat head and curly, long hair on a video of him in the briefing room earlier.