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Donald Trump says he cares about coal miners and he says the nation should be using American-made steel and Senate Democrats are giving him the chance to prove it by promising a brief government shutdown on those issues. On Thursday, the House passed a continuing resolution to fund government through April of next year and then left for the holiday recess, but Senate Democrats aren't ready to start vacation, not until they actually help American workers.
About 12,500 former union miners and their families have been told their health benefits will lapse come Jan. 1, and an additional 10,000 are in danger of losing benefits at a later date. Many are also facing potential cuts to their retirement benefits due to declining coal companies being unable to make required contributions to pension funds. […]
[Sen. Joe] Manchin is demanding a vote on an amendment to extend miners’ medical benefits for one year. The spending bill includes a four month extension, which critics of the proposal say is inadequate.
Democrats are playing up Trump’s support for coal country as they try to pressure Republicans.
It's no coincidence that three Democrats senators up for re-election in 2018—Sherrod Brown (OH), Joe Manchin (WV), and Joe Donnelly (IN)—represent lots of these coal miners. Hurting their chances at re-election is by far more important to Mitch McConnell—who demanded the permanent funding be stripped out of the bill the House passed Thursday, according to House Appropriations Chair Hal Rogers—than taking care of the miners, many of whom are in his own home state.
It's not just health care and a pension for the miners Democrats are fighting for by blocking the funding bill. Another one of Trump's big promises was broken by Paul Ryan first chance he got, when he stripped a "Buy America" provision from a water resources bill the House passed this week. So Democrats are giving Trump the chance to back up what he said just this week in one of his victory rallies: "Whether it’s producing steel, building cars or curing disease, we want the next generation of innovation and production to happen right here in America and right here in Ohio, right?" All he has to do is make a call to McConnell and tell him so.
As of midday Friday, Democrats are dug in. "We're going to win this fight," says incoming Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer. "We cannot predict the path, but we're going to win this fight because we're right." There's no reason at all that a spending bill that lasts just a few days can't be passed while this gets resolved. The House doesn't even have to come back—it could be passed by unanimous consent. In the House, Rogers has indicated he'll stick around to take care of that if the Senate makes changes.