The US government shutdown has reached its 20th day, with seemingly no end in sight.

 

Senate Democrats rejected for the 10th time last Thursday a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government, insisting they won’t back away from demands that Congress take up health care benefits.

 

Members of the House Freedom Caucus stood firm Monday morning about not health care at the center of the shutdown.

 

Rep. Chip Roy, (R) Texas, says Democrats are playing politics.

 

“I’m always happy to sit down and work out a plan and a path forward, but it has to be with the phase out or elimination of subsidies, generally, in favor of empowerment of patients and doctors not insurance companies. That’s the bare minimum, and that’s where we are. And if they want to bring to us some sort of clean extension of subsidies, that’s a non-starter,” Roy said.

 

Rep. Andy Harris, (R) Maryland, echoed Roy about healthcare subsidies.

 

“If you talk about a negotiation where you are going to wind down these subsidies, eliminating some of the fraud and abuse potential and you combine it with, for instance, eliminating upcoding on Medicare Advantage, which is worth about $130 billion over ten years, well maybe there’s some package you could think about, but it’s not going to come together in one week and it’s certainty not going to be subject to an extortion demand during a shutdown,” Harris said.