Democratic congressional leaders are dismissing a threat from the White House budget office to fire masses of federal workers during a government shutdown, saying they will not be intimidated into caving on their demands for talks on extending health care subsidies.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) brushed off the missive from Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as a negotiating tactic that will not throw the party off its game.

“This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government,” Schumer said. “These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today.”

“We will not be intimidated by Russ Vought, who is completely and totally out of control,” Jeffries told reporters Thursday in the Capitol.

“The OMB has been illegally shutting down parts of the government throughout the entire year. … All he's done is sent a message to voters in Virginia and across the country that Republicans are determined to hurt the American people,” he added.

“As a negotiating tactic, our response to Russ Vought is simple: Get lost."

The sharp words from the Democratic leaders, with less than a week to prevent a shutdown, underscored just how far apart President Trump’s lieutenants and his rivals on Capitol Hill are from reaching an agreement.

If anything, the two sides seemed to be moving further apart with the memo from Vought, who has long sought to shrink the size of government, and the clear pressures from a Democratic base — eager to fight Trump — on Jeffries and Schumer to toe a hard line in the spending fight.

“Well, this is all caused by the Democrats,” Trump said Thursday in largely brushing off a question about the possible shutdown during an Oval Office event with Turkey’s president.

© The Hill