EXPLAINED | What would it take to end the US government shutdown?

WASHINGTON: A deep impasse between Republican President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats has triggered the 15th U.S. government shutdown since 1981. Here's a look at what it will take to reopen the government.

What do Republicans want?

Trump's Republicans control both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and they have already scored big budget wins this year. The massive legislation called the "One Big Beautiful Bill," passed in July, boosted spending for defense and immigration enforcement, rolled back spending on green energy and other Democratic priorities, while making major cuts in the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income and disabled people to help pay for tax cuts focused mainly on the wealthy.

Republicans also have broadly supported the White House's efforts to claw back money that had already been approved by Congress for foreign aid and public broadcasting, even though that undermines lawmakers' constitutional authority over spending matters.

They have said they would vote for a continuing resolution that would extend funding at current levels through November 21 to allow more time to negotiate a full-year deal.

What do Democrats want?

As the minority party, Democrats do not have much power. However, Republicans will need at least seven Democratic votes to pass any spending bill out of the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber.

This time, Democrats are using that leverage to push for renewing expanded healthcare subsidies for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Their proposal would make permanent enhanced tax breaks that are otherwise due to expire at the end of the year and make them available to more middle-income households.

If those tax breaks are allowed to expire, health insurance costs will increase dramatically for many of the 24 million Americans who get their coverage through the ACA, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. The impact would be most acute in Republican-controlled states that have not expanded the Medicaid health plan for the poor.

Democrats also want language inserted into any funding bill that would prohibit Trump from unilaterally ignoring their ACA provisions or temporarily withholding funds.

They also want to roll back other restrictions on ACA coverage that were enacted in the "One Big Beautiful Bill."

Those changes would provide health coverage for seven million Americans by 2035, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, but also increase government healthcare spending by $662 billion over 10 years. Republicans say they are open to considering a fix for the expiring tax breaks, but say the issue should be handled separately and it was unclear whether their "fix" would differ substantially from the Democrats'. Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to use the stopgap funding bill to open the gates for government healthcare subsidies for immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Congressional Democrats argue that group of people living in the United States is prohibited by law from receiving such help and that their legislation would not change that. (Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan; editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)