Senate Democrats senselessly block GOP bill that would pay workers during government shutdown

Senate Democrats have doubled down on the government shutdown, blocking a bill that would make sure federal workers wouldn't miss any more paychecks.

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin proposed the bill on the Senate floor that would ensure service members and federal personnel who are currently working would get their paychecks during the Democrat-induced shutdown. Only three Democrats in the entire Senate joined Republicans to pay federal workers.

'They want to shut down the government.'

The bill ultimately failed, falling six votes short of the 60-vote threshold. Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Raphael Warnock of Georgia bucked 45 of their colleagues and joined 51 Republicans in support of the bill.

"We've heard Democrats criticize [Johnson's] bill because it would provide pay only to those working through the shutdown," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a post on X. "They say they want everyone to get paid. Well, I have great news: the clean CR would pay everyone. We just need five more Democrats to support it."

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Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

As Thune and his allies at the White House have pointed out, Democrats are the ones who have consistently voted against passing a clean continuing resolution to keep the government open. At the same time, Democrats are demanding Congress renegotiate Obamacare subsidies that aren't set to expire until the end of the year and insisting on passing their hyper-partisan $1.5 trillion spending bill.

"I'll just point out the irony in Democrats holding the government and the American public hostage over a health care system that they created," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Thursday's briefing. "The health care system was called Obamacare. Why? Because Democrats and President Obama implemented it. And Republicans have always said it's a broken system, yes, but they caused it. And now they want to shut down the government to fix it?

"We need to open the government, and then we can have these very important conversations about health care," she continued.

RELATED: Democrat senator blocks vote to end shutdown to protest Trump's 'authoritarianism' in drawn-out rant

Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Republicans have remained consistent on the shutdown fight. Their resolution is a clean, nonpartisan funding bill that keeps spending at the same rates Democrats voted for over a dozen times in the past. Thune has even indicated he would be willing to give Democrats a vote on the Obamacare subsidies so long as they vote to open the government.

Even still, just three Democrats have mustered up the courage to consistently vote with Republicans to reopen the government.

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