Senator Reveals What He Expects Will End Shutdown

President Donald Trump has been the ultimate closer on major votes in this Congress, but has largely stayed out of talks to end the federal government shutdown. Here’s why the proverbial 800-pound gorilla is not weighing in just yet.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Thursday that the pressure is on a handful of Democrats, not on the president, to bring the matter to a close and reopen the government.

“This is going to end when the Democrats decide their political stunt has gone on long enough, and it’s going to end the same way, which is seven, eight, nine, 10 [Senate] Democrats are going to finally say, ‘OK, we can open the government,’” Cruz said, “and it will likely be Democrat senators who are retiring.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., have consistently held the line, saying there is nothing to negotiate when it comes to a simple, short-term stopgap funding extension, which contains no Republican policy priorities.

Although he did meet with Democrats before the shutdown, Trump’s decision to mostly stay out of the skirmish has been to the chagrin of Democrats in the Senate, who see him as the ultimate dealmaker.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said Thursday he doesn’t expect Republican leadership to budge “without Donald Trump telling them what to do.” 

But Kelly says he’s hopeful Trump sympathizes with them on extending COVID-19-era boosted health care premium tax credits.

“It seems that he wants to try to fix these premium increases, and I think he probably wants the government to open back up,” Kelly told The Daily Signal. “So, sometimes that’s maybe not so clear, but if he wants those two things, that’s what we want. We’re on the same page. We should be able to figure this out.” 

Republicans, however, say it’s simply not Trump’s job to decide outcomes in a legislative body.

“It’s not the president’s [issue],” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told The Daily Signal. “It’s our issue.”

“There is no role to play” for the president, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., likewise told The Daily Signal. “We’re all in the same position.”

In the view of many Republicans, Trump intervening in the matter would simply be a bailout for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who they think is motivated by the backlash he faced in March for supporting a previous Republican-backed funding extension.

“The real reason the shutdown is happening is because Chuck Schumer has a real political problem. Several months ago, when Democrats cooperated with Republicans to keep the government open, Schumer almost lost his job,” Cruz said.

“The radical Left base got furious, and Schumer is looking over his left shoulder at being primaried [by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. And so, the reason we’re having a shutdown now is that Schumer is trying to prove to the crazies in his party that he hates Donald Trump as much as they do, and that’s why he shut the government down,” Cruz added.

The Texas senator reiterated his belief that the shutdown would end once it was no longer worth the trouble for the old guard of the Democratic Party.

“At some point, as I said, a handful of Democrats who are no longer worried about being primaried, because they’re retiring, will decide enough is enough, and the government will open. And that could be a week, that could be a month,” said Cruz.

But despite the Texan’s confidence that the situation will resolve itself, many Democrats say Trump will have to personally negotiate to win their votes.

“No matter what Mr. Thune offers, I’m sorry, I got to know that President Trump is on board,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said in a recent appearance on MSNBC. “Because it’s not enough anymore to take the word of Speaker Johnson or Sen. Thune, because they have to go check with the big guy in the White House.”

George Caldwell contributed to this report.