Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says Congress could avoid a government shutdown next week if Democrats “dial back” their demands to add hundreds of billions of dollars in new health care spending to a short-term government funding bill.

“I’m a big believer that there’s always a way out,” Thune told the Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “And I think there are off-ramps here, but I don’t think that the negotiating position, at least at the moment, that the Democrats are trying to exert here is going to get you there.”

Thune warned if Democrats don’t back off their demands to add approximately $1.2 trillion in health care-related spending to the government funding bill, “we’re probably plunging forward toward the shutdown.”

Thune also said Democrats shouldn’t be shocked

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