WASHINGTON — Republicans are threatening to exact maximum pain on Democrats who are refusing to reopen the government, which shut down on Tuesday, including by enacting wide-scale layoffs of federal workers and freezing billions of dollars in blue states.
“The longer this goes on, the more pain will be inflicted. Every single bit of this was entirely avoidable,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Johnson also said ominously on Fox Business that Democrats have “handed the keys to the kingdom to the executive branch under President Trump to do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do because we would never get Democrat votes for them.”
And speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Donald Trump was even more blunt, explicitly threatening partisan payback during the shutdown: “A lot of good can come down from shutdowns. We get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things.”
Meanwhile, Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, announced Wednesday a hold on previously approved federal funding for projects in New York, which is represented mostly by Democrats ― in particular the top Democrats in the House and Senate, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer.
“Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles,” Vought said on X, citing specifically the Second Ave subway and Hudson Tunnel projects.
He also announced the administration is withholding $8 billion in clean energy programs in 16 blue states. No GOP-controlled states are affected by the freeze.
Later, in a private call with GOP members of Congress, Vought announced that additional layoffs at federal agencies would begin in two days, according to NOTUS. In past shutdowns, federal agencies have furloughed workers rather than laying them off permanently.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seemingly confirmed there would be permanent layoffs for the first time in a shutdown.
“Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, and it’s because the Democrats have put us in this position,” Leavitt said during a press briefing. “If the Democrats did not vote to shut down the government, we would not be standing up here talking about layoffs today.”
The punitive measures targeting the very government that Republicans control are meant to cow Democrats into caving. So far, at least, they’re standing firm in their demands that Republicans first agree to extend enhanced tax credits for people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Those subsidies expire at the end of the year. Millions of people will see their monthly insurance premiums skyrocket without them.
Democrats filibustered a House-passed bill funding the government again on Wednesday, the first day of the shutdown, which has furloughed some 750,000 federal workers.
“Vought thinks that he’s going to bully Democrats into submission by canceling all of these projects. If we’re smart, it’ll be evidence of why we have to fight even harder to stop the lawlessness, to protect our families,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters on Wednesday after the vote.
Reacting to Vought’s announcement on social media, Schumer criticized Trump, saying he is “using the American people as pawns, threatening pain on the country as blackmail.”
“Obstructing these projects is stupid and counterproductive because they create tens of thousands of great jobs and are essential for a strong regional and national economy,” he added.
The move to freeze federal funding in the New York City area also made an impact on the race for governor of the neighboring state of New Jersey.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), the Democratic nominee, sought to tie her GOP opponent Jack Ciattarelli to the hold, saying he’s “refused to name a single area where he disagrees with Trump and has already said he would never sue the Trump administration.”
Some Republicans also said they didn’t love the sound of the administration doing mass firings or taking other retaliatory measures.
“There’s a name, there’s a family,” Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) told HuffPost, in response to a question about mass firings and other possible efforts to make the shutdown more painful for Democrats. “And just to say, ‘By God, we’re going to do this, to just hit back and everything,’ or, ‘By God, we’re going to do this to try to outdo the House on the Senate side,’ or whatever it may be. I don’t believe in that.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned that freezing funds in blue states amid the shutdown could hinder a bipartisan deal to reopen the government.
“They need to be really careful with that, because they can create a toxic environment here,” Tillis told HuffPost. “So hopefully they’re working with the leader, and the leader with them, on not creating more work to get us out of this.”
Although the Senate made little progress toward resolving the stand off on Wednesday, there was at least a hint of willingness to engage in bipartisan discussions about the path forward ― something that’s been close to nonexistent in the weeks leading up to the shutdown.
As GOP and Democratic leadership whacked each other over the shutdown, a big huddle of rank-and-file senators from both sides of the aisle traded potential ideas on how to reopen the government and address the expiring health insurance subsidies.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who was involved in the discussions, said Republicans are willing to address the matter during the regular appropriations process, but Democrats first need to agree to reopen the government. Rounds previously floated a short-term extension of Obamacare subsidies of up to two years.
“Let’s get [a bill funding the government for 45 days] in place, and then there’s a whole lot of negotiations that can go on, but let’s get it done,” Rounds told reporters. “Don’t let the government stay shut down. It’s to nobody’s benefit to keep it shut down.”
But Democrats in the huddle said they want some kind of assurance that, should a deal come together, Trump would ultimately honor it and not go ahead and fire federal workers anyway.
“If we vote for a deal, then Trump starts to fire everybody next week, it’s like, ‘Hey, wait a minute?’” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told HuffPost.