Article snippet: Senate Democrats say they have the votes to block a government funding stopgap measure that is expected to pass the House on Thursday evening, but they’re hoping to avoid a government shutdown that could inflict political damage on their vulnerable incumbents. Senate Democratic Leader MORE (R-Ky.) won’t have “near enough” votes to pass the four-week stopgap under consideration in the House that would extend funding for CHIP by six years and delay three unpopular ObamaCare taxes. “We want Republicans to need to negotiate,” said the aide, who added that Democrats wouldn’t be blamed for a possible government shutdown because the temporary funding measure expected from the House will fail in the face of bipartisan opposition. Democrats would like to add an immigration reform bill to the spending package that would protect from deportation an estimated 800,000 immigrants who came to the country at a young age. They also want to fund CHIP for another decade, instead of the six-year span favored by the House, and raise spending levels for defense and nondefense programs by roughly equal amounts. Republican Sens. MORE (R-Ariz.) is expected to miss the vote because he is recovering from cancer treatment. McConnell needs 60 votes to advance the House bill past a Democratic filibuster. Down four votes in his own conference, he would need at least 13 Democrats to move forward — and he doesn’t appear anywhere close to having that number. So far, Sen. according to The Hill’... Link to the full article to read more