For the last 40 days, the government has been shut down. It’s true that people have suffered because of that. There was a point to that suffering, however, because, in the end, if Democrats stuck to their guns, millions of Americans would be able to continue being able to afford their healthcare.
Unfortunately, those people suffered for absolutely nothing, because eight Democrats (well, seven and one independent who caucuses with Democrats) decided to cave yesterday and agree to send the Republicans’ bill to the floor for debate. Great job, guys!
These senators include the three who were already on board to sign on — Angus King of Maine, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada — and five more who decided to betray us all at the last minute: Tim Kaine of Virginia, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Dick Durbin of Illinois. What do they all have in common? None of them has to worry about a primary challenge next year! Both Shaheen and Durbin are retiring, and the rest aren’t up for re-election until at least 2028, so they can hope that, by then, everyone will have forgotten about this.
Well, except for Fetterman, who has to know by now that there’s no chance in hell that he’s not getting primaried in 2026 after the bait-and-switch he’s pulled since taking office.
To his credit, however, he at least did not pretend as though he seriously thought this would lead to Republicans voting to extend the ACA subsidies or even putting it up for a vote. Or that he even cared about extending the ACA subsidies, which he clearly does not. Rather, he congratulated himself on having been “a consistent voice against shutting our government down” and pretended as though that had something to do with how very much he cared about “our military, SNAP recipients, gov workers, and Capitol Police who haven’t been paid in weeks.”
Cortez Masto, who also planned to help Republicans pass their budget all along, was slightly less honest.
I have consistently voted against shutting down the government because I know the pain it is causing working families, from TSA agents to government contractors. We must extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, but that can’t come at the expense of the millions of Americans across our country impacted by a shutdown.
With the government open, we can focus on passing a full, bipartisan budget for 2026. That starts with a minibus that will restore funding President Trump cut, deliver millions of dollars in critical funding to Nevada, and block the Administration from future RIFs.
We also have an opportunity now to put Republicans on the record on the ACA. If Republicans want to join us in lowering costs for working families, they have the chance to do so. And if they do not come to the table, they will own the premium increases they cause.
No, they won’t. In fact, they are blaming Democrats now, insisting that the only reason the premiums are so high is because of the ACA, as if that makes any sense at all. They literally have people on their side thinking that, somehow, the high premiums are caused by the ACA, and that, left to their own devices, health companies would, for some reason, offer lower prices while, we assume, still covering pre-existing conditions.
The other “consistent vote” against the shutdown, Angus King, took a break from his job operating a cursed antique store in Maine to talk to Morning Joe about how standing up to Trump just wasn’t working and wouldn’t lead to the ACA subsidies being extended anyway.
Sure. Except for the fact that Democrats won sweeping victories this past Tuesday and Trump was practically disintegrating over that — and the fact that basically everyone understood and/or supported what the Democrats were doing and believed Republicans were at fault for the shutdown. Except for those things!
Tim Kaine, for his part, decided to just go ahead and pretend that the “new” budget “guarantees a vote” to extend the ACA subsidies, which it very much did not.
In a statement posted to Bluesky, Kaine wrote:
I have long said that to earn my vote, we need to be on a path toward fixing Republicans’ health care mess and to protect the federal workforce.
This deal guarantees a vote to extend Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, which Republicans weren’t willing to do. Lawmakers know their constituents expect them to vote for it, and if they don’t, they could very well be replaced at the ballot box by someone who will.
Except for how they probably won’t. But Tim Kaine? Tim Kaine just might.
New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan announced her intention to allow a vote for the budget by more or less sounding exactly like Tim Kaine.
In a statement posted to Bluesky, Hassan wrote:
Over the last several weeks, I’ve heard from Granite Staters who can’t afford a doubling of their health insurance costs. I’ve also heard from families about the deep pain that the government shutdown has caused, made worse by a President who illegally and repeatedly chose to cut off help for families trying to buy groceries. […]
Our work to deliver relief for families now enters an important phase. Congress has one month to engage in serious, bipartisan negotiations to extend the Affordable Care Act’s expiring tax cuts for health insurance. My Democratic colleagues and I have been ready to work on this for months. With the government reopening shortly, Senate Republicans must finally come to the table – or, make no mistake, Americans will remember who stood in the way.
That would be you, Maggie. That would be you. People expect Republicans to Republican. It’s supposed to be your job to stand in their way, which you have clearly opted against doing.
Hassan’s fellow New Hampshire senator, Jeanne Shaheen, claimed that caving was “the only deal on the table,” although it likely would not have been had Democrats like her stuck to their guns.
She also seemed pretty sure that Majority Leader John Thune will now allow a vote on the ACA extensions, which seems pretty unlikely. And, even if he did, Speaker Mike Johnson has been clear that he will not promise any such thing.
Jacky Rosen of Nevada issued a statement announcing her intention to stop fighting at this particular moment, while talking about how super duper hard she has been fighting and will fight in the future. Just, you know, not right now.
For the last 40 days, I’ve been fighting tooth and nail to hold President Trump and my Republican colleagues accountable and make sure Congress takes action to prevent a massive spike in health care costs for millions of hardworking families who will be financially devastated by these increases. Unfortunately, it’s become clear as we go deeper into the second month of this Republican government shutdown that President Trump and Washington Republicans are weaponizing their power in alarming ways to inflict unimaginable pain and suffering on working people, like fully withholding SNAP benefits and gutting our tourism industry by grinding air travel to a halt.
Trump and his Republican cronies on Capitol Hill do not give a damn about hurting working people, and their conduct over the last month has been nothing short of appalling. The concession we’ve been able to extract to get closer to extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits is a vote on a bill drafted and negotiated by Senate Democrats. Let me be clear: I will keep fighting like hell to ensure we force Republicans to get this done. Nevadans and all Americans deserve access to affordable health care, and Senate Republicans need to work with us in a bipartisan way before the next deadline.
Someone really should have told these people about the judges ordering Trump to release the money for SNAP benefits.
Trump Still Trying To Take Food Out Of Mouths Of Babies, Despite Judge’s Order
Lastly, we have Dick Durbin of Illinois, who can fuck all the way off into the sea. He only posted his fully delusional statement to Xitter and not to Bluesky, probably because he knew he’d get fully excoriated there.
At Democrats’ urging, today’s bill is not the same one we’ve voted down 14 times. Republicans finally woke up and realized their Groundhog Day needed to end. This bill is not perfect, but it takes important steps to reduce their shutdown’s hurt. Not only would it fully fund SNAP for the year ahead, but it would reverse the mass firings the Trump Administration ordered throughout the shutdown.
Now that Democrats secured these wins, it’s time for Leader Thune to keep his promise to schedule a vote on the ACA tax credits in December and we will see to it that he makes good on his word for the millions of Americans worried they won’t be able to afford health care in January.
Yes, let’s all definitely trust John Thune. What could possibly go wrong?
Durbin’s cave is perhaps the most galling, as he represents Illinois, which is not even a swing state. Even if he’s retiring at the end of this term, he should still give something of a damn about what his constituents want him to do. It’s certainly not what I want him to do!
It’s entirely likely that Durbin and some of the other new caves decided to allow the vote in order to keep Republicans from eliminating the filibuster — which they should have just let them do. Sure, it would have definitely been real shitty for a year, and forecasts have pretty consistently held that retaking the Senate in 2026 is a longshot for Democrats. But after last week’s wins — and particularly the size of the swings in some races — there’s been new optimism that maybe, just maybe it’s possible. And if they did, eliminating the filibuster would have given them what they needed to undo a lot of the damage the Trump administration has caused and even maybe do some good. Now, whatever happens, we’ve most likely just got three straight years of all crap, all the time.
They made it so that people who have suffered for these 40 days and 40 nights have suffered for absolutely nothing. For no purpose at all. The “wins” these Dems cite are pretty much just things that would have happened no matter what, were the bill passed at the very beginning.
What these votes should tell us, more than anything, is that these Democrats are not willing to fight for us, or to even fight for things that moderates and independents and even freaking Marjorie Taylor Greene want.
They’re not willing to do anything at all, and therefore must be replaced by those who will.
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