WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune is dismissing the Democratic requests concerning health care as lacking seriousness. However, he asserts that a government shutdown can still be “avoided” despite significant disagreements as the funding deadline approaches on Wednesday.

Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, expressed his belief in finding solutions during an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. He remarked, “There’s always a way out.” He further noted that although options exist, the current stance adopted by the Democrats in negotiations seems unlikely to resolve the issue.

According to Thune, Democrats will need to scale back their demands, which include the immediate extension of health insurance subsidies and reversing the health care measures embedded in the large-scale tax bill passed by Republicans in the summer. Without these adjustments, Thune indicated, “we’re probably moving towards the shutdown.”

This ongoing funding deadlock in Washington echoes disputes from prior administrations. Notably, President Donald Trump led the nation into its longest shutdown during his attempt to secure funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Currently, Democrats are the ones setting conditions while under significant pressure from their supporters to confront the Republican president and his initiatives.

Despite the looming deadline on Wednesday, Democrats show little inclination to compromise. Their stance remains unchanged even after the White House Office of Management and Budget issued a memo on Wednesday. This memo advised agencies to prepare for a “reduction in force” if the government shuts down, which could result in thousands of federal employees facing permanent layoffs.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York criticized the OMB memo as merely an “intimidation attempt” and expressed confidence that either legal challenges would overturn the layoffs, or the administration would eventually have to rehire the workers.

Thune stopped short of criticizing the White House threat of mass layoffs, saying the situation remains “a hypothetical.” Still, he said no one should be surprised by the memo as “everyone knows Russ Vought,” the head of the Office of Management and Budget, and his longtime advocacy for slashing government.

“But it’s all avoidable,” Thune said. “And so if they don’t want to go down that path, there’s a way to avoid going down that path.”

One way to avoid a shutdown, Thune said, would be for enough Democrats to vote with Republicans for a stripped-down “clean” bill to keep the government open for the next seven weeks while negotiations on spending continue. That’s how Republicans avoided a shutdown in March, when Schumer and several other Democrats decided at the last minute to vote with Republicans — to great political cost when Schumer’s party then revolted.

A seven-week funding bill has already passed the House.

“What would eight Democrats be willing to support?” Thune asked. “In terms of a path forward, or at least understanding what that path forward looks like.”

Republicans in the 100-member Senate need at least seven Democrats to vote with them to get the 60 votes necessary for a short-term funding package, and they may lose up to two of their own — Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky both opposed it in preliminary votes last week. A competing bill from Democrats also fell well short of 60 votes.

Thune suggested some individual bipartisan bills to fund parts of the government for the next year could be part of a compromise, “but that requires cooperation from both sides,” he said.

Democrats say they are frustrated that Thune hasn’t approached them to negotiate — and that Trump abruptly canceled a meeting with Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York that had been scheduled for this week. Trump wrote on social media, “I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive.”

Thune said he “did have a conversation with the president” and offered his opinion on the meeting, which he declined to disclose. “But I think the president speaks for himself, and I think he came to the conclusion that that meeting would not be productive,” Thune said.

Still, he says he thinks Trump could be open to a negotiation on the expanded health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year if Democrats weren’t threatening a shutdown. Many people who receive the subsidies through the marketplaces set up by the Affordable Care Act are expected to see a sharp rise in premiums if Congress doesn’t extend them.

Some Republicans have agreed with Democrats that keeping the subsidies is necessary, but Thune says “reform is going to have to be a big part of it.” Democrats are likely to oppose such changes.

By Monday, when the Senate returns to session, lawmakers will have just over 24 hours to avoid federal closures.

Thune said he intends to bring up the bills that were rejected last week. “They’ll get multiple chances to vote,” he said, before a government shutdown begins at midnight Wednesday.

He said he hopes “cooler heads will prevail.”

“I don’t think shutdowns benefit anybody, least of all the American people,” Thune said.