Over the course of four weeks, lawmakers have made zero progress toward negotiating a deal to reopen the government.
The slow drip of the shutdown has dragged on, from partial paychecks to missed paychecks altogether, with fairly few surprises. Democrats swear they are more dug in than ever and think more leverage could be headed their way.
“This has been building,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said. “And Republicans left in place this ticking time bomb. It’s about to explode and create this huge increase in people’s health care costs. So we’ve been trying to diffuse this ticking time bomb from the beginning.”