Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries emerged from the White House just after 4:30 p.m. Eastern still entrenched in their positions. Democrats are demanding promises to lower rising health care costs, and Republicans are pushing for a “clean” stopgap bill to keep the government running through mid-November. Schumer said he believed “for the first time the president heard our objections,” but “large differences” remained. Health care premium increasesDemocrats point the finger to changes made in the recent tax and spending cuts law — commonly referred to as the “one big beautiful bill” — as the reason for rising health care costs. Johnson said the House had “done its job” roughly two weeks ago when all Republicans and one Democrat passed the seven-week stopgap funding bill.