Democrats are betting that Americans will blame President Donald Trump and Republicans. Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they still require bipartisanship to overcome the 60-vote Senate threshold to pass a short-term funding bill. Unless more funding is approved, the federal government will shut down on Oct. 1.

“They who run the Legislative Branch usually get blamed in the eyes of voters when something goes awry or there’s a shutdown of any kind,” said Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist and former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who now chairs Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.

“What matters is if there is a shutdown and all of a sudden your benefit checks stop coming,” Reinish added.

But there’s also a recent precedent suggesting that the party that supports extraneous policy riders is typically seen as responsible for shutdowns and emerges on the losing political end without significant wins. Republicans were bruised from the longest shutdown in U.S. history, which occurred in Trump’s first term and lasted 35 days, after the president failed to get any additional money to construct more of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in 2018 when Republicans controlled Congress.

The Republican plan was passed by the House last week but failed to clear a 60-vote filibuster in the Senate. It includes largely extending current funding levels through Nov. 21 to allow appropriators more time to finish a bipartisan annual budget. A Democratic counterproposal would provide funding through October and extend the Obamacare insurance credits, along with a Democratic wish list of other policies that are non-starters for the GOP.

“This is the same budget that the Democrats approved six months ago, just adjusted for inflation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday. “And unfortunately, all of a sudden, now they want to shut down the government.”

Leavitt told reporters that discussions are “ongoing” with both Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) are set to meet with Trump this week, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

During an earlier funding showdown in March, Democrats blinked. Schumer and nine other Senate Democrats sided with Republicans to prevent a shutdown. This go-around, Democrats appear more defiant and unified as they vow to resist Republicans.

“The American people are on our side,” Schumer said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “They believe, if there’s a shutdown, it’s going to be caused by Trump, because they know how much they want relief in the healthcare issue, and they know he’s not negotiating.”

Pressed repeatedly, Schumer ultimately declined to confirm that he and other Democrats would vote against funding the government unless there were negotiations. He stated the party is “firm” on the “need to get something done to relieve the distress the American people are in.”

“The bottom line is,” Schumer added, “we must get a better bill than what they have, plain and simple.”

However, at least one of Schumer’s members strongly disagrees. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a centrist, has criticized his party for flirting with the notion of a shutdown and vowed to support Republicans’ stopgap funding bill. With opposition from Fetterman and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a fiscal hawk who typically opposes such short-term spending bills, Republicans are likely to still require support from at least seven Democrats to get anything passed the Senate.

“For me, as a Democrat, if you are concerned by a lot of these changes that have occurred during the Trump presidency, why would you turn over a shuttered government over to [White House budget office director Russell Vought] to effectively remake the government in all kinds of ways?” Fetterman said in a later interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “That would allow them to redefine exactly what’s essential and what is not. And, for me, I’m not sure we have the appropriate kinds of leverage.”

SENATE DEMOCRATS TRY TO REBRAND ‘CLEAN’ FUNDING BILL IN ESCALATING SHUTDOWN BRAWL

Both sides say this time involves different political calculations than the dozens of other government funding showdowns in past years. Democrats see an electorate, particularly their base, craving greater resistance to Trump. The GOP sees a president carrying out a mandate to tackle government bloat and bureaucracy.

“While they may fight our spending reductions and other Trump reforms, they don’t get to hold the government hostage to force their agenda,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) told the Washington Examiner. “It only shows that he is going to throw a tantrum and shut down the country until he and the Democrats get the radical left spending increases and policy changes that they want.”