Democrats Divided On Plan To End Government Shutdown

On Tuesday, the ongoing government shutdown tied the 2018-2019 shutdown as the longest ever. Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate are under immense pressure to end the shutdown, as the ripple effects have spread to our most vulnerable Americans. While discussions have been underway on a plan to end the shutdown, Senate Democrats are divided on how that plan should look.

According to the Hill, several Senate Democrats have told their colleagues that a deal to end the shutdown could end this week. A bipartisan group of rank-and-file senators has been negotiating a potential deal for the last week. The potential agreement would see both parties agree to a continuing resolution, which functions as a stopgap funding bill that would keep the government funded to at least mid-December. While the deal would put the regular funding process back on track, there has been little progress made on extending subsidies for Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance.

“We’re trying to figure out a way to open the government and accomplish the things we want to accomplish. We’re going to keep doing that,” ​​Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), a moderate Democrat who’s been leading the discussions, told The Hill. “I’d say there’s progress being made. I’ll leave it at that.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who’s also been part of the talks, has been less enthusiastic about the progress. He told the Hill that Democrats would support a funding bill “at the time the president gets engaged and we have a real negotiation about what to do to deal with these rising costs.” He added that President Donald Trump “didn’t seem to care all that much” about rising health care costs during his interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday. “I’m seeing things across the country from people I went to high school with [who] aren’t going to be able to afford their health care,” Kelly said.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) cosigned Kelly’s concerns, saying that Democrats shouldn’t agree to any deal that doesn’t have tangible gains in lowering health care costs. “Shutdowns … hurt, but the pain that I just heard in Florida is going to be worse than anything happening with the shutdown. Because when those premiums go up by 100 to 200 percent, those people’s lives are ruined. People will die,” Murphy told the Hill.  “My sense is people out there want us to fight.”

Senate Republicans have refused to budge on extending the ACA subsidies while the government is shut down. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said that the most he’s willing to do is offer a vote on extending the subsidies, which, given the GOP’s historical distaste for the ACA, is likely to fail.

To be quite honest, the GOP’s stance on extending the subsidies seems like a self-inflicted wound. The open enrollment period for ACA insurance began over the weekend, with monthly premiums skyrocketing nationwide. A large share of Republican voters receive their insurance through the ACA. Florida, a Republican stronghold, has the largest share of citizens receiving ACA insurance, with millions expected to be uninsured next year without the subsidies. Considering that lowering the cost of living was the pitch made by Trump and Republican congress members, it should be a no-brainer to extend these subsidies.

It’s almost like they didn’t actually intend to lower prices. Crazy.

While the majority of Americans place responsibility for the shutdown on Republicans, the pressure is still on Democrats to reach a deal. Federal workers have gone a month without pay, with a food drive designed to help them, having lines wrapped around the building. Air travel delays have steadily increased, which was the driving reason for the 2018-2019 shutdown ending.

More importantly, low-income families are feeling the impact of several social safety net programs being disrupted. Two separate federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must use contingency funds to ensure Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are distributed, but it’s still unclear when the distribution will happen. As the weather cools on the East Coast, families who rely on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program are faced with being unable to keep their utilities on.

This reality has placed Democrats between a rock and a hard place. The longer the government shutdown continues, the more dire the situation becomes for low-income families and federal workers. Yet if they reach a deal with no health care gains, millions will become uninsured in the next year, and the struggle would’ve been for nothing. It would be nice if we didn’t have a Republican Party more concerned about implementing authoritarian rule than ensuring Americans don’t starve or die from a lack of health insurance.