Top White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett on Monday predicted the government shutdown is “likely to end sometime this week.”
But if that does not happen, the Trump administration may impose “stronger measures” to force Democrats to cooperate, Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The comments came deep into the third week of the shutdown, which is dragging on with no clear end in sight amid a partisan fight in the Senate over federal funding priorities.
Republicans want to pass a short-term resolution to resume funding at current levels. Democrats demand that any stopgap bill include additional spending on health-care protections, including an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that are due to expire at year’s end.
The GOP-backed bill failed to pass the Senate for the 11th time on Monday evening. The 50-43 vote fell mostly along party lines.
Hassett said on CNBC that he has heard from the Senate that Democrats thought it would be “bad optics” to vote to reopen the government before this weekend’s massive nationwide “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump.
“Now there’s a shot that this week, things will come together, and very quickly,” Hassett said. “The moderate Democrats will move forward and get us an open government, at which point we could negotiate whatever policies they want to negotiate with regular order.”
“I think the Schumer shutdown is likely to end sometime this week,” he said, referring to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whom Republicans blame for the funding lapse.
But if it doesn’t, “I think that the White House is going to have to look very closely, along with [White House budget chief Russell] Vought, at stronger measures that we could take to bring them to the table,” he said.
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on Hassett’s remarks.
Hassett’s remarks suggest that Democrats are looking for a politically opportune moment to fold in the shutdown fight. But with numerous polls showing more voters blame Trump and Republicans for the impasse — and indicating strong support for extending the ACA health insurance subsidies — Democrats mostly haven’t budged.
“Every day gets better for us,” Schumer told Punchbowl News earlier this month, “because we’ve thought about this long in advance and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30 and we prepared for it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said last week that he has offered Democratic leaders a vote on extending the Obamacare tax credits in exchange for opening the government.
But top Democrats appear to be rejecting Thune’s entreaty. Instead, some Democrats are calling on Trump to participate in negotiations himself.
Hassett said Monday that Trump “has been very active throughout this process, but it’s also his position that this is a thing that the Senate needs to work out.”