\u201cI think everyone recognizes that the president plays a very significant role in something like a shutdown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Party leaders are keenly aware of the pressure.<\/p>\n
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters alongside Senate Republican Leadership outside of the West Wing of the White House on October 21. – Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Inside the US Capitol this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune sat down with a small group of senators to discuss potential solutions to the problem. One participant said the session amounted to touching gloves so that when Democrats end the shutdown, Republicans are positioned and prepared to negotiate on the health care issues that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his party are demanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go to bed at night thinking about health care. Of course, I\u2019m always thinking about what we can do to find a solution,\u201d Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican of Louisiana who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said as he left the meeting. \u201cI say that but it\u2019s more pointed forward, because we need Schumer to open the government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, as a critical deadline approaches on November 1, when open enrollment launches, Trump and the GOP have no consensus on how to handle the issue.<\/p>\n
Republicans are in a bind: GOP leaders have shut down any talk about how to handle the subsidies during the funding fight, since Democrats have put those subsidies at the center of their demands. But the unexpectedly long stalemate has prevented Republicans from working through a solution on what is one of the diciest issues in Washington at the moment \u2013 especially since extending the subsidies even in the short-term could cost tens of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear how long that position can hold. Several prominent Republicans close to Trump \u2014 from Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley \u2014 have been increasingly vocal in their warnings that failing to act will cause pain for millions of Trump voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t do anything their premiums are gonna almost double. They\u2019re too high right now. We\u2019re talking about working people,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just, we\u2019ve got to do something. This is totally unaffordable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some members, including GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, have made their case directly to Trump, arguing to him that the party\u2019s own working class voters rely on that money to pay their health care coverage. In a recent phone call with Trump, Van Drew told CNN that the president made clear \u201che doesn\u2019t want to hurt people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis concern is, is there something better we can do?\u201d Van Drew said.<\/p>\n
In response, the New Jersey Republican told Trump there was but that he\u2019s worried it\u2019d take too long for a fix, telling the president: \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to get it done in a matter of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Drew added that he agrees with Greene\u2019s recent attacks against their own party for lacking a plan on an issue that impacts working class voters. If Republicans fail to find a solution, the New Jersey Republican warned: \u201cIt\u2019s morally bankrupt not to do it and it is politically stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The US Capitol on October 23. – Eric Lee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Yet the fate of that policy is highly uncertain in the GOP, especially in the House. House Republican leaders are privately skeptical that their sharply divided party can agree to an Obamacare extension this year, and believe any overhaul would be hard to accomplish in just a few weeks, according to multiple people involved in those discussions.<\/p>\n