(MENAFN) Vice President JD Vance expressed optimism on Wednesday that the ongoing U.S. government shutdown will not last long, even though there is minimal indication that either the White House or congressional Democrats are ready to make concessions.

"I actually don't think it's going to be that long of a shutdown. This is a pure guess from the Vice President United States, because I think you already saw some evidence that moderate Democrats are cracking a little bit. They understand the fundamental illogic of this," Vance stated while speaking with journalists at the White House.

His remarks came roughly an hour after Senate Democrats once again blocked a Republican-backed measure—which had already cleared the House of Representatives—to maintain current government funding levels until late November.

The proposal garnered support from only three Democrats, far fewer than the 60 votes required to pass legislation in the Senate.

Democrats have pushed to include changes to the healthcare system within any government spending package.

Their demands include undoing a portion of former President Donald Trump's hallmark tax policy that reduced Medicaid allocations, along with prolonging subsidies associated with the U.S.'s semi-universal healthcare framework, the Affordable Care Act.

On Tuesday evening, the Republican-majority Senate voted along strict party lines to reject a temporary funding measure that incorporated these healthcare provisions.

When asked about Trump's threat to initiate layoffs during the shutdown—a move he claimed would mainly affect Democrats—Vance dismissed the idea that the strategy was intended to deliberately single out the opposing party.

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