At the White House, Vice President JD Vance warned that federal workforce layoffs would be coming if the shutdown continues, in a break with past precedent of temporary furloughs. What the White House is sayingThe White House is not backing down from the message that Democrats are to blame. Administration officials at all levels say the push to undo Medicaid cuts Republicans passed this summer amounts to providing health care to undocumented immigrants. The White House is also calling the proposed layoffs one of the "unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown," as press secretary Karoline Leavitt put it on Wednesday. Thune has said he's willing to talk about health care once the government reopened.