WASHINGTON, D.C. - On day one of a government shutdown Wednesday blame was being cast on all sides.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he's praying that Democrats come to their senses. Democrats are pushing for more health care funds that Republicans refuse to provide.

U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts has made it clear how he wants the impasse to be remembered...the Schumer Shutdown.

"[Senator] Chuck Schumer has forced us into a 'Schumer Shutdown'," Nebraska's junior senator said in an interview with News Channel Nebraska Wednesday morning. "All he needs to do is what he has done four times over the last 18 months already - vote for a bipartisan budget that he has already voted for."

The continuing resolution garnered just 53 of the 60 votes it needed to pass Tuesday, sending the government into shutdown for the first time since 2017, and the second time during a Trump administration.

But Ricketts told NCN that Republicans shoulder none of the blame this time around.

"It's a bi-partisan budget," Ricketts said. "What the democrats need to do is get on board and vote for the continuing resolution."

Ricketts voted for the budget extension as well back in March, but was one of just 18 no votes when the C-R came up for vote in September of 2024.

"Chuck Schumer - despite the fact that eleven of our 12 appropriations bills had come out of committee - had not brought a single one of them up for a vote on the floor, and was asking for a continuing resolution," Ricketts said about his 2024 vote. "I was trying to make the point that we need to get back to the regular order of process."

The sticking point this time? Health care. Democrats are demanding funding for health care subsidies that are expiring for millions of people under the Affordable Care Act, causing the insurance premiums to spike nationwide.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said Republicans are happy to discuss the health care issue — but not as part of talks to keep the government open. Ricketts echoed the sentiment that the time for talking health care should come later.

"When [the democrats] extended the pandemic-era subsidies they set the deadline," Ricketts said. "They could have brought this up at any time last year...and they chose not to."

During Trump’s first term, the nation endured its longest-ever shutdown, 35 days, over his demands for funds Congress refused to provide to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

In 2013, the government shut down for 16 days during the Obama presidency over GOP demands to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Other closures date back decades.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.