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Path to shutdown resolution elusive as parties dig into opposing positions
ATLANTA — The government shutdown has now dragged into its eighteenth day—and it looks likely to last even longer.
In public comments and interviews throughout the week, Georgia Democrats and Republicans offered starkly different visions for how to reach a deal to reopen the government and blamed each other for the gridlock.
"My Republican colleagues are saying the healthcare discussion can wait," said Senator Raphael Warnock in a social media video Thursday. "It cannot wait."
The Georgia Democrat laid out the position of many in his party who say any funding bill to reopen the government must include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.
But most congressional Republicans have a very different view.
"Stop playing games," said Representative Mike Collins, Monday in a video posted to X. "Pass a clean funding bill."
Collins, a Republican representing northeast Georgia's 10th congressional district who is running for the Senate, underlined the core GOP position.
Republicans argue the path forward is through a GOP-backed stopgap spending bill known as a continuing resolution—or 'CR'—that would reopen the government at roughly its current spending levels for a few weeks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune tweeted Friday that he was willing to negotiate on healthcare—but only after the continuing resolution is passed.
"I will not negotiate under hostage conditions, nor will I pay a ransom," he wrote.
When asked if there was anything he was willing to negotiate on outside of the GOP continuing resolution, Georgia Congressman Austin Scott (R-8th District) agreed with Thune.
"Not until the government reopens," the Republican told the 11Alive Political Team on Wednesday. "The government has to reopen. You don't get to take hostages the way Chuck Schumer has."
Meanwhile, Democrats remained equally committed to their position.
"If Republicans continue to ignore the healthcare crisis they've manufactured, people will go bankrupt," wrote Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on X Wednesday. "People will get sick. People will lose insurance."
On Thursday, when asked if there was anything Democrats should compromise on, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia said, "The position of the Democrats is this is already a compromise."
"We're not saying 'repeal the Big Billionaire Bill," said Charlie Bailey. "We think they should. But that's not what we're saying. Where we're already at is the compromise."
With a lingering chasm between the two parties' positions, Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie warned the shutdown could drag on.
"As long as people are in those positions and they're dug in, they probably aren't going to talk to each other," she said Thursday. "So it's probably going to take some type of outside intervention or wakeup call to get people to sit down at the table."
Thursday night, the Senate adjourned for a long weekend, guaranteeing the shutdown will extend at least into next week.
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