With a government shutdown just hours away, Democrats and Republicans angrily blamed each other and refused to budge from their positions, unable to find agreement or even negotiate as hundreds of thousands of federal workers stood to be temporarily stood down or laid off.

The partisan standoff over health care and spending is threatening to trigger the first US government shutdown in almost seven years at 12.01am on Wednesday (2.01pm AEST).

To avoid it, the Senate would have to pass a House of Representatives measure that would extend federal funding for seven weeks while legislators finish their work on annual spending bills. But a resolution appeared far off as tempers flared, increasing the odds of a shutdown by the hour.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans are trying to “bully” Democrats by refusing to negotiate on an extension of health care benefits and other priorities.

“It’s only the president who can do this. We know he runs the show here,” Schumer said Tuesday morning, after a bipartisan White House meeting the day before yielded little progress.

US President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans say they won’t entertain any changes to the legislation, arguing that it’s a stripped-down, “clean” bill that should be non-controversial.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Republicans “are not going to be held hostage” by the Democrats’ demands. The Republican-led House was on a week-long recess, unavailable for immediate votes even if the Senate did find bipartisan agreement. And far from entering into negotiations, Trump instead posted a fake, mocking video of Democrats on Monday evening after the White House meeting.

On Tuesday, Trump threatened retribution, saying a shutdown could include “cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.”

It was still unclear if either side would blink before the deadline.

While partisan stalemates over government spending are a frequent occurrence in Washington, the current impasse comes as Democrats see a rare opportunity to use their leverage to achieve policy goals and as their base voters are spoiling for a fight with Trump.

Republicans who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate would likely need at least eight votes from Democrats to end a filibuster and pass the bill with 60 votes, since Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to vote against it.

Still, Schumer said Trump and Republicans would be to blame if the government shuts down.

A handful of Democrats said they were still deciding how to vote, holding out for a last-minute compromise. Thune said he is “hoping there are Democrats out there who are reasonable and understand what’s at stake here.”

The last shutdown was in Trump’s first term, from December 2018 to January 2019, when he demanded that Congress give him money for his US-Mexico border wall. Trump retreated after 35 days — the longest shutdown ever — amid intensifying airport delays and missed paydays for federal workers.

Democrats’ healthcare demands

Millions of people could face higher insurance premiums if the health care subsidies expire at the end of the year. Congress first put them in place in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats say they want the subsidies immediately extended. They have also demanded that Republicans reverse the Medicaid cuts that were enacted as a part of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” this year and for the White House to promise it will not move to rescind spending passed by Congress.