WASHINGTON — Coal-state Democrats who are threatening a government shutdown over health benefits for retired miners should "take yes for answer" and stop stalling a short-term spending bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday.
McConnell said he understands Democrats' frustration, but he said the stopgap spending bill ensures that retired miners — including thousands in his home state of Kentucky — will keep their health care through April 28.
"Would I have preferred that provision to be more generous? Of course I would have," the Republican said in a speech on the Senate floor.
McConnell said he asked Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other House leaders to fund health-care benefits for a year, as Democrats are seeking, but his request was denied. Republicans are wary of bailing out unionized workers and dismissive of the 70-year-old guarantee President Harry S. Truman made of lifetime benefits for miners.
The spending bill to keep the federal government operating beyond Friday's midnight deadline is stuck in the Senate as Democrats facing re-election in 2018, including West Virginia's Joe Manchin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, fight for a one-year extension for the miners' health benefits rather than the temporary fix.
McConnell said the temporary extension is the best lawmakers are going to get, especially since the House has already passed the spending bill and gone home for a three-week holiday.
"This is a good time to take yes for answer," McConnell said.
Coal-state Democrats have pressed President-elect Donald Trump, a self-proclaimed coal champion, to intervene with Republicans.
Read Saturday'sArkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.