Well, the Senate Democrats got the vote they were promised. And you’ll NEVER guess how it turned out!
So? Holding out by a government shut down was pointless after enough time was passed to make their point. The MAGAs WANT a shut down, you cant threaten them with that any more than you can threaten Brer Rabbit with the briar bush.
The Dems made their point.
The only point they made is “Republicans can take the American people hostage and we will reward them by giving in to their demands”. When it comes time to do this all over next year, they’ll do it again because they know Schumer has no control over his caucus and they’ll fold like cheap laundry
The other thing is because the dems opened the door to the idea that they might have been able to influence healthcare policy if they were brazen enough, and then agreed to not be that brazen and let the republicans not make the healthcare change they were asking for, it now gives the impression that they are actually fine with the republicans making these cuts.
If they had just stuck with grandstanding over things that have no impact, they wouldn’t have to explain why they couldn’t stop the republicans from cutting the subsidies.
They’re lucky most people don’t actually pay attention.
The fact of it being a record long shutdown suggests the Democrats were more stubborn than either party in any past shutdown.
If senate Democrats continued to vote no for a couple more months, senate Republicans would have had to either cave on Democratic Party demands (reasonable Affordable Care Act premiums) or cave on Trump administration demands (end the filibuster).
Does anyone here seriously think the GOP was going to cave to the Democrats rather than to Trump? I am personally sure they would only cave to Trump.
While I have endorsed ending the filibuster as good for democracy in the long-term, in the short term it further empowers the strongman. Maybe not often, since Trump usually ignores Congress, but sometimes. Does anyone doubt that?
Ideally, the Democrats would end the filibuster on the first day after again gaining a senate majority. The only reason I would welcome it now is because I think no Democratic president would push it as hard as Trump does. It’s easy for me to advocate because I’m not one of the people who would go hungry in a prolonged shutdown.
And they were winning! Polls showed people were holding Republicans and Trump responsible. They’d gotten so desperate they were willing to starve people and snarl the entire transportation infrastructure to get their way. The CR the House passed in September was only good up to the 21st and in another two weeks they would have been FORCED to negotiate. Democrats folded on a royal flush.
Trump demanded the same thing during his first term. It didn’t happen then and wouldn’t have happened this time. Aside from two or three people, the Republicans (Thune and McConnell included) have no stomach for ending the filibuster, because then they’d be expected to pass things that the fanatics in their base demand but would be political suicide (a nationwide abortion ban for instance). In general, Republicans seem to be starting to realize Trump is detached from reality and are ignoring his increasingly unhinged demands - I’m not seeing any congresspeople talking in favor of 50-year mortgages, or abolishing the insurance industry, or sending people checks for thousands of dollars, among the nonsensical things he’s been demanding of late.
I am not familiar with this deadline. Do you have a link for this?
Of course, the Republicans did negotiate with the Democrats. You just think, if I read you correctly, the Democrats could have held out for a better agreement and gotten it this month. Do I have that right?
If you convince me there was a November 21 deadline that forces the senate GOP to cave in during negotiations with someone, and you probably will, why would the cave in be to the Democrats rather than Trump? I guess you already said, but senate Republicans have never wanted to be closely dictated to by either Trump or Schumer. This did not change. Nor has their greater dislike of being dictated to by Schumer.
Here’s an article from last week that references the date approaching.
Because, as I stated before, eliminating the filibuster would force them to put suicidally unpopular ideas up for a vote because the base demands it.
There is a third possibility in which the Republicans could have passed a very narrow filibuster carve-out (E.g. “CRs introduced during a government shutdown are exempt from cloture”), as Democrats did in 2014 when they nuked the filibuster for most presidential appointments, and Republicans in 2017 when they added Supreme Court justices to that list. That outcome would still have been preferable to Democrats caving again, because it would make future shutdowns easier to resolve.
So, the amendment standing alone went down on party line vote — that’s what would have been fully expected to have happened in a world without the filibuster anyway. That is bad but it’s “normal”, politically speaking.
A lot of the members don’t want to make it too easy to get over “shutdowns”. Because, hey, some times you MAY get what you want or prevent what you don’t. That one of the sides just do not care (or may even relish) how many get hurt how badly makes it an unequal battle currently but it’s hard to tell the Senate, an antipopular body by design, to change its spots.
And apparently the Democratic Senators are imploding because of this. Good job making this a complete Fup for your party.
Well, keeping perspective on where we are as a country, F ups van be relative in scale. I mean, Trump just demolished the east wing of the White House.
The ending of this most recent shutdown, and how it occurred, is more like a tripping and falling at the end of a long run.
The Democrats should never have made ACA subsidies their hill to die on. 75% of people who rely on them live in red states, so you can be sure that if the Democrats had gotten what they wanted most of the people it would have helped wouldn’t have thanked them for it.
That is what I haven’t really understood. The “linkage” always struck me as curious.
Now, I’m in the curious position of hoping a whole lotta people experience a whole lot more pain in the next 11 months, hoping SOMETHING changes next November.
Do you happen to have a cite for this? If so, I would love to share it across some Facebook and other social media platforms I frequent, centered in rural parts of Texas (outside of DFW and beyond). I want to be able to demonstrate “see, Democrats are the ones trying to save your health insurance, but you’re too fucking stupid to appreciate it”.
More Than 3 in 4 ACA Marketplace Enrollees Live in States Won by President Trump in 2024
80% of all premium tax credits ($115 billion) went to ACA Marketplace enrollees in Trump-won states.
Yeah, just last week there was an actual election in which the Democrats destroyed the Republicans nationwide. Politically speaking, that’s far more important than squabbling over details of how the shutdown ended.
Here would be my question for anyone negatively affected by the shutdown.
The Democrats held out for over a month to bring ACA subsidies to the table. Now that it is all said and done, was it worth it to you?
You seem to be missing the point- the MAGAs WANTED the government to be shut down. Thus keeping it shut down was doing nothing- the Dems made their point- loudly- that the GOP is killing ACA- just like they always wanted to as it was a Democrats idea.
Or just leave it shut down.
No, the fact that the GOP loudly and clearly killed the ACA means less votes for them in 2026.
Of course it was worth it- the Dems managed to get the GOP to kill “Obamacare” in public, and well publicized- which is what the Dems wanted as their second choice. Look, the GOP tried to kill ACA quietly, and almost in secret- now everyone knows that the GOP killed it. Voters have short memories, but they will remember this next November.
Ah! I get it now. The genius strategy was to give Republicans what they wanted, and that would…uh…make people vote for Democrats? Let me explain: Republicans wanted a shutdown but voted to open the government. Therefore, in a master stroke of political maneuvering, Democrats voted to keep the shutdown going (y’know, “holding the line” and “fighting back” or whatever), giving Republicans what they wanted. And by making MAGAs happy, MAGAs will become Democrats.
Of course, today, the Democratic base is mad that the shutdown is over because now they’re no longer giving Republicans what they want, which is definitely the shutdown.
It all makes sense now!
You don’t need to do this much jujitsu to get the republicans to admit they don’t want to spend money on healthcare.