Schumer, Dems unveil alternative shutdown plan, ask for one-year extension to Obamacare subsidies

Senate Democrats unveiled their alternative to Republicans' plan to reopen the government that would see an extension to expiring Obamacare credits for one year, asking that Republicans just say "yes." 

Schumer argued that after 14 failed votes on the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), "It's clear we need to try something different." 

"Democrats are ready to clear the way to quickly pass a government funding bill that includes healthcare affordability," Schumer said. "Leader Thune just needs to add a clean, one-year extension of the [Obamacare] tax credits to the CR so that we can immediately address rising healthcare costs. That's not a negotiation. It's an extension of current law, something we do all the time around here."

"Now the ball is in the Republicans' court," he continued. "We need Republicans to just say 'yes.'"

However, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., blocked the bill - despite it being amended to include furloughed federal workers into the mix - over lingering concerns that it still gave President Donald Trump too much power to pick and choose "which federal employees are paid and when."

That move prompted a fired-up Thune to question why, exactly, Peters, and more broadly, Senate Democrats, would object to the bill, given that it would solve a major pain point of the shutdown. He said that lawmakers would vote on the bill on Friday. 

"In other words, we're going to keep federal employees hostage," Thune said of Peters' objection. 

"It's about leverage, isn't it? That's what ya'll have been saying," he said.