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Article snippet: House Democrats want to use the looming battle over government spending and raising the debt limit as leverage to shore up ObamaCare. The minority party believes Republicans will need their votes on the critical fiscal issues, and they think they can secure concessions on healthcare. “We could make some kind of provisions part of our negotiations on spending in September,” Rep. MORE (D-Ky.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee, told The Hill as Congress was leaving town. “I’m sure we’ll discuss that,” he said. The government would shut down on Oct. 1 without a new spending measure. Treasury Secretary MORE has set a Sept. 29 deadline for raising the nation’s borrowing limit, a date that suggests the two measures could be tied together for simplicity. Mnuchin also says it should be a “clean” hike, meaning the administration does not support linking spending cuts to the debt limit bill despite demands from Republicans. This raises the likelihood of Democratic votes being needed to carry the legislation. In the Senate, Democratic votes will also be necessary to prevent or overcome a filibuster. Rep. MORE (D-Vt.) said he’s also open to the idea of tying ObamaCare fixes to the fiscal bills. “We’ll make any effort we can,” he said. Conservatives in the House are unlikely to back a clean debt limit hike and will want to cut government spending, not continue it. They are also unlikely to agree to the kinds of ObamaCare fixes desired by Democrats. Still, it’s possi... Link to the full article to read more