Top Democrats snub Trump meeting after president says 'I don't see a deal'

• Pelosi and Schumer to deal directly with Republicans in bid to avert shutdown

• Trump suggests he’s unwilling to negotiate on healthcare and immigration

Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said they would boycott a meeting between congressional leaders and Donald Trump after the president said “I don’t see a deal”, suggesting he would not negotiate with them on spending, healthcare and immigration.

In a statement, the two Democratic leaders said that instead of meeting the president, they intended to negotiate directly with their Republican counterparts in an attempt to avert a government shutdown next month.

Schumer and Pelosi said: “Given that the president doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead.

“Rather than going to the White House for a show meeting that won’t result in an agreement, we’ve asked Leader [Mitch] McConnell and Speaker [Paul] Ryan to meet this afternoon. We don’t have any time to waste in addressing the issues that confront us, so we’re going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement.”

Their decision not to attend the meeting followed a morning tweet from the president:

But Republican leaders McConnell and Ryan dismissed the Democrats’ offer and challenged them to attend the White House meeting if they wished to negotiate over a spending plan.

“We have important work to do, and Democratic leaders have continually found new excuses not to meet with the administration to discuss these issues,” the two Republicans said in a statement. “Democrats are putting government operations, particularly resources for our men and women on the battlefield, at great risk by pulling these antics. There is a meeting at the White House this afternoon, and if Democrats want to reach an agreement, they will be there.”

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, echoed that, saying the meeting would proceed as scheduled with McConnell and Ryan. “The president’s invitation to the Democrat leaders still stands and he encourages them to put aside their pettiness, stop the political grandstanding, show up and get to work,” Sanders said.

The meeting between Trump and the Congressional leaders was intended to discuss the year-end spending bill to keep the federal government running and avert a shutdown.

The last time the leaders met with Trump to discuss government spending earlier this year, he unexpectedly sided with “Chuck and Nancy”, infuriating Republicans.

He and the Democrats made a deal to increase the debt limit and finance the government through early December in an effort to avert a government shutdown. That deadline is now coming up.

Tax test

Meanwhile, Trump faces a critical test of his ability to persuade Senate Republicans to rally behind a tax overhaul that would largely benefit America’s highest earners. A handful of GOP senators threaten to derail the effort and deprive the president of what would be his first major legislative success.

Behind the scenes, GOP leaders are frantically tweaking the plan in a hurried attempt to win over the Republican holdouts and pass tax reform by Christmas.

At least a half-dozen Republican senators have expressed concerns about various aspects of the bill including how small businesses are taxed and whether the cost of health insurance will rise.

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Trump will attempt to rally Republicans around his tax overhaul plan. After he departs, the Senate budget committee, upon which Republicans hold a one-seat majority, is expected to vote on the proposal.

Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican on the committee, indicated on Monday that he would vote against the measure if his concerns over how the plan treats certain businesses known as “pass-through entities” were not addressed. A failure to clear the vote in committee could force leaders back to the drawing board and delay the swift timeline set for the plan’s approval.

Susan Collins of Maine – whose opposition helped sink Republican repeal of Obamacare – opposes the provision to completely eliminate the estate tax and has suggested including the removal of the Obamacare individual mandate is a mistake.Deficit hawks like Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona, frequent critics of the president, are wary because the tax plan will raise the federal deficit.

But on Monday, Republicans sounded confident they would have the votes to pass tax reform by the end of the week.

McConnell said on Tuesday: “We’re working hard to get it across the finish line this week.”

Senator John Cornyn, the majority whip, predicted a “great victory” later this week.

“Unlike the debate and votes we had on healthcare, every single member of the Republican conference is working to get to yes,” Cornyn said.

The final shape of the Republican plan is far from certain. Republicans, who control the chamber with a slim 52-48 majority, can only afford to lose two votes to pass the bill without Democratic support. In the event of a tie, Mike Pence would cast the deciding vote.

They are using a special budget process known as reconciliation that would bypass a filibuster if Democrats refuse to support the plan. Democrats, who have largely been excluded from the crafting of the tax plan, say the overhaul helps only the wealthiest Americans.

Trump had been trying to woo a handful of moderate Democrats who hail from conservative states, including senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.

But on Tuesday, those Democrats held a press conference with more than a dozen of their colleagues urging Republicans to abandon their tax plan and work with them on legislation they say would benefit the middle class and not the rich.

Yet when pressed on how they would vote, Manchin, Donnelly and Heitkamp did not rule out supporting the tax proposal.

“It’s unfair to ask that question,” Heitkamp said. “It’s still a moving target.”

The House passed its own version of the tax overhaul earlier this month, without a single hearing on the more than 400 pages of legislation that would cut the corporate tax rates from 35% to 20% and condense the number of tax brackets from seven to four.

Republican leaders in both chambers are determined to pass tax reform by the end of the year, after repeated failures to repeal the healthcare law. If the Senate passes their tax plan, House Republicans will probably come under pressure to approve the proposal. Alternatively, there would be a conference to reconcile the different plans.

A report released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the Republican tax plan would hurt Americans earning less than $30,000 while benefiting the highest earners. A report by the joint committee on taxation also found that the rich would be the biggest beneficiaries under the plan.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ivanka Trump plugged her father’s tax plan on a two-day trip to India.

Trump told a crowd of business leaders and entrepreneurs that her father’s administration was “laser-focused on passing long-overdue tax cuts”, which she said would deliver much-needed relief to working families and American businesses “of all sizes”.

Additional reporting by Michael Safi