WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said he believes the U.S. government is on track to shut down, seeking to pin the blame on Democrats one day before federal funding is set to lapse.

“I think we’re headed into a shutdown because the Democrats won’t do the right thing,” Vance said Monday following a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House. “I hope they change their mind, but we’re going to see.”

President Donald Trump met with top Democratic and Republican congressional leaders less than 36 hours before an Oct. 1 shutdown deadline. The two sides left no closer to resolving Democrats’ demands to extend health care subsidies and reverse Medicaid funding cuts included in Trump’s signature tax legislation passed earlier this year.

“There are still large differences between us,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said after the meeting.

Back at the Capitol, however, Schumer suggested Democrats could settle for some of their priorities — namely, extending the subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums and stopping the White House from using fast-track and unilateral procedures to rescind federal funds. But he rejected the possibility of passing the GOP’s stopgap bill without acting on the ACA credits in particular, noting that millions of Americans will soon get notices of massive premium increases.

“It’s in the president’s hands,” Schumer said.

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats’ refusal to approve a short-term spending bill to keep the government open until Nov. 21 amounts to “hostage taking,” but has said he would have conversations with Democrats after addressing the immediate funding deadline.

Vance said that the Democrats held some positions that the president thought were “reasonable.” The vice president mentioned addressing rural health care funding as one potential area for compromise.

Despite the Republican majority in the Senate, GOP leaders need at least eight Democrats to vote for any funding measure to overcome procedural obstacles and opposition from at least one Republican senator, Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Lawmakers were searching late Monday for a way to end the impasse. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota said he and others have been discussing a potential compromise that would extend the ACA credits for several years, but phase down the benefits closer to their pre-pandemic level in the second and third year.

Rounds said he thinks such a deal could be hammered out in a few days if Democrats agreed to keep the government open.

A shutdown would delay release of key economic indicators — including the monthly employment report scheduled to be released Friday — and at least temporarily furlough hundreds of thousands of federal workers while other government employees are forced to work without pay to continue essential services.

U.S. stocks pared gains after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced late Monday morning it planned not to release economic data during a potential shutdown.

Trump has threatened to permanently fire federal workers en masse if the government shuts down, compounding the impact on the economy. Furloughed employees historically have returned to work when the government reopens and received back pay for lost wages. Agency shutdown plans, however, have so far been silent on any planned firings, despite Trump’s threat.

Vance told reporters that “essential services” would keep functioning during any shutdown.

A shutdown would be the first since 2018-2019, when funding for the government lapsed for five weeks including New Year’s Day during Trump’s first administration.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday that Democrats would not accept mere pledges to work together later on health care policy in exchange for their votes now on a short-term spending bill to keep the government open.

“No one can trust their word on health care,” he said, pointing out that Republicans have tried for more than a decade to repeal Obamacare. “The America people know it would be an unreasonable thing to do.”

Democrats want to spend $350 billion to permanently extend Obamacare tax credits to middle-class families, to avoid a premium spike on Jan. 1. They also want the bill to repeal Medicaid cuts in the giant Trump tax bill, including new work requirements and a crackdown on an accounting gimmick that has allowed states to increase their Medicaid reimbursement rates. They also want to reverse cuts to medical research and block the White House from rescinding previously enacted appropriations.

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(With assistance from Jordan Fabian, Catherine Lucey and Derek Wallbank.)

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