Trump goes on raging tweetstorm against Democrats over negotiations to avoid a government shutdown

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April 27, 2017 4:23 PM

President Donald Trump went on the attack over negotiations for a bill to prevent a government shutdown.

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President Donald Trump on Thursday moved the negotiations over a spending bill to prevent a government shutdown to Twitter.

In a series of tweets on Thursday, Trump attacked Democrats' requests for inclusions in the bill.

"I promise to rebuild our military and secure our border," Trump tweeted. "Democrats want to shut down the government. Politics!"

The current funding bill for the federal government expires Friday, and if a spending bill is not passed by then, parts of the federal government will shut down.

Trump highlighted one part that would be affected.

"As families prepare for summer vacations in our National Parks - Democrats threaten to close them and shut down the government. Terrible!" Trump said.

While Republicans hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, Democrats could filibuster a spending bill in the Senate. One of the biggest hang-ups in the negotiations has come over Obamacare, the law formally known as the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats have expressed a desire to include funding for Obamacare's cost-sharing-reduction payments in the spending bill. The payments help to offset the cost for insurers that are required to offer lower-cost insurance plans to poorer Americans and help stabilize the insurance market.

Currently, funding for the payments comes from the White House, and Trump has threatened to end them. Most health-policy experts agree that if these payments were halted, insurers would abandon Obamacare's insurance exchanges and many Americans would either lose health insurance or see their costs skyrocket.

Amid the uncertainty from the White House over the payments, Democrats have attempted to lock them in as a congressional appropriation.

Trump in his tweetstorm called funding the payments "bailing out insurance companies," echoing tweets on Wednesday and earlier Thursday.

House Republicans on Thursday introduced legislation that would extend government funding through next week to provide more time for negotiations.

Here's Trump's full tweetstorm:

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