Top White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett predicted Monday that the government shutdown “will likely end this week.”
But if that doesn’t happen, the Trump administration could impose “stronger measures” to force Democrats to cooperate, National Economic Council Chairman Hassett said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The comments come just into the third week of the government shutdown, which continues to drag on with no clear end in sight, amid a partisan battle in the Senate over priorities for federal funding.
Republicans hope to pass a short-term resolution to resume funding at current levels. Democrats want any stopgap bill to include additional spending on health care protections, including an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits that expire at the end of the year.
The Republican-backed bill failed to pass the Senate for the 11th time Monday night. The 50-43 vote was decided largely along party lines.
Hassett said on CNBC that he heard from the Senate that it would be a “bad look” for Democrats to vote to reopen the government ahead of this weekend’s massive “No Kings” protests nationwide against President Donald Trump.
“The situation is expected to come to an end very quickly this week,” Hassett said. “Moderate Democrats will move forward and give us open government. At that point we will be able to negotiate orderly on whatever policies they want.”
“I think the Schumer shutdown is likely to end this week,” he said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, whom Republicans blame for funding mistakes.
But if not, he said, “I think the White House, along with Budget Secretary[Russell]Vought, needs to look very carefully at stronger steps that can be taken to bring this to the table.”
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Hassett’s remarks.
Hassett’s comments suggest that Democrats are seizing a politically opportune moment to join the shutdown fight. But polls show a growing number of voters blame Trump and the Republican Party for the impasse, and Democrats have remained largely unmoved, despite strong support for extending ACA health insurance subsidies.
“Every day is getting better for us,” Schumer told Punchbowl News earlier this month. “Because we’ve been thinking about this for quite some time and we knew that health care would be the focus on September 30th and we were preparing for that.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R.S., said last week that he proposed to Democratic leaders a vote on extending Obamacare tax credits in exchange for opening up the government.
But Democratic leaders appear to be rejecting Thune’s pleas. Instead, some Democrats are calling for Trump himself to participate in negotiations.
Hassett said Monday that Trump has been “very active throughout this process, but it’s also his position that this is an issue that the Senate needs to resolve.”
