The US government is in danger of shutting down with only a few days left before the fiscal year ends on September 30.
Democratic leaders, who are pressing to maintain important healthcare programs as part of any funding agreement before the deadline, will meet with Donald Trump on Thursday.Trump wants to talk to prevent a catastrophe, but the White House has already blamed Democrats.
According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, "Democrats are to be blamed if the US government shuts down,"
The US president said he had no expectations from the discussion, after agreeing to meet with Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
Trump was cited by the AP as adding, "I'd love to meet with them, but I don't think it's going to have any impact."
As the government nears a crucial funding deadline, with federal funds scheduled to expire on Tuesday, September 30 at the end of the fiscal year, Trump and congressional leaders have a limited amount of time to start negotiations.
Congress is still at a standstill and has not passed any legislation to provide financing to keep the government operating.
A Democratic plan to boost healthcare financing also failed in the Senate, as did a Republican plan adopted by the House to finance the government through November.
The White House vehemently denounced the Democrats' shutdown threat in a statement on Tuesday, calling it a "radical Left insanity."
"Radical Left Democrats are barreling the country towards a government shutdown if they don’t get their ~$1.5 trillion wish list of demands," it stated in a statement.
"The party of open borders, violent crime, and transgender for everybody is now jeopardising military pay, critical care for veterans, firefighter pay, disaster relief funding, and many more programs on which Americans rely while President Donald J Trump and Republicans are committed to keeping the government open with a clean funding extension," it stated.
Democrats want to preserve important healthcare programs, which is why they are delaying the funding bill.
