Democrats cave and shutdown threat evaporates
Democrats now say they never planned to force a shutdown and only wanted to highlight insurance problems for retired coal miners.
By Burgess Everett, Seung Min Kim and Ben Weyl
12/09/16 07:02 PM EST
Updated 12/09/16 07:01 PM EST
They went right up to the brink, but Senate Democrats said on Friday night that they never intended to shut the federal government down over a dispute over coal miner benefits.
Though they took a hard line against a GOP proposal to fund the government through April — because it only extended retired miners' health insurance for four months — Democrats admitted as the midnight shutdown deadline drew near that they would not force a brief funding lapse over the matter.
"We're not going to shut down the government. We're going to keep it open," said incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York. "We're going to provide the votes so we don't shut down."
more
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/government-shutdown-spending-bill-democrats-senate-232411
