From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

The shutdown in Washington goes into its third day, with the Senate taking another series of votes on Friday afternoon to fund and reopen the federal government.

It seems like little expectation of any progress.

Meantime, are some Republicans now beginning to hedge on maybe giving Democrats some of what they want later this year?

Welcome him, Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.

We're joined today by my colleagues on the editorial page, columnist Kim Strassel and editorial board member

Manet Uque Berua.

As we tape this on Friday afternoon, the Senate is voting again for the fourth time on a

resolution to extend funding for the federal government for about seven weeks.

The last attempts have failed to reach the 60-vote threshold

in the Senate needed to proceed, with three Democrats crossing the aisle to vote. Yes,

those were Catherine Cortez Mastow of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Angus King of Maine.

The question now is whether any more Democrats are going to swing over to the eye side.

One thing Democrats have been holding out for in these negotiations are extended COVID-era

Obamacare subsidies and notable maybe some movement on the right about having that conversation

later.

Let's start with a clip of Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaking to reporters today.

We can't make commitments or promises on the COVID subsidies because that's not something that we can guarantee that they're the votes there to do.

But what I've said is I'm open to having conversations with our Democrat colleagues about how to address that issue.

And I think that the, but that can't happen while the government is shut down.

And here is Vice President J.D. Vance at the White House Press briefing on Wednesday.

I will go to the U.S. Capitol right now, meet with Chuck Schumer or any Senate Democrat if it helps us reopen the government. Most of the conversations, my experience, at least have been one-off. We're also, of course, relying on some of our Senate Republican colleagues who have good relationships across the aisle. We're going to do whatever we have to do is the answer. And I think it's tough to predict what shape this negotiation is going to take over the next few months. But I feel good about the fact that

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