We’ve been dealing with this ridiculous government shutdown, which was initiated because the Republican budget was promoting major cuts in health care support, among other billionaire favorites. If done properly, the purpose of such a shutdown would be to get concessions from the opposing party. Now the Democrats are talking about caving to the opposition.
The Senate on Sunday made significant progress towards ending the longest US government shutdown in history, narrowly advancing a compromise bill to reauthorize funding and undo the layoffs of some employees.
But the measure, which resulted from days of talks between a handful of Democratic and Republican senators, leaves out the healthcare subsidies that Democrats had demanded for weeks. Most Democratic senators rejected it, as did many of the party’s lawmakers in the House of Representatives, which will have to vote to approve it before the government can reopen.
“This healthcare crisis is so severe, so urgent, so devastating for families back home, that I cannot in good faith support this [resolution] that fails to address the healthcare crisis,” said Democratic Senator majority leader Chuck Schumer.
I hate having to agree with Chuck Schumer, but he’s right: this is just a surrender.
It wasn’t the whole Democratic party that gave up, but eight chickenshit Democrats who joined forces with the Republicans to try to endorse a “compromise” bill. These are the people who must be voted against in the future.
From top left: Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Jacky Rosen, John Fetterman and Catherine Cortez Masto. From bottom left: Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, Maggie Hassan and Tim Kaine, with independent Sen. Angus King.
I am not surprised to see Fetterman in there — he disappointed me long ago. But hey, Tim Kaine was a Democratic vice-presidential candidate once upon a time, with Hillary Clinton. Maybe I should have mistrusted him even more.
If this compromise bill goes through, brace yourself for a big jump in the cost of health care.
The compromise does not resolved the issue of the Affordable Care Act premiums, which one study forecast would jump by an average of 26% if the tax credits were allowed to expire.
Keep in mind that that 26% goes straight from your pocket into the coffers of insurance companies, because of the fucked up way health care is managed in this country, with unnecessary middlemen inserted into the process.
Welp, my life may suck a lot more, soon.
These eight -plus Chuck Shumer- need to be primaried. If Republicans did this to their party they would be finished.
Others online have pointed out that none of these eight are up for re-election next year, so most likely they were chosen to be the ones to vote this way by the larger caucus to give cover to more vulnerable senators.
@3: I worry about how much sense that makes.
“If this compromise bill goes through, brace yourself for
a biganother bigger jump in the cost of health care.” FIFY — healthcare costs, including my own, have already started jumping.Maybe these Democrats hate Mamdani so much they’re willing to undermine their whole party just to punish him and set back any momentum gained by “radical” “socialists”.
@4 Recursive Rabbit: That is standard political calculation in Congress. The head of the party will look at how many votes they need to change sides (Fetterman was going to vote for it anyways), who is vulnerable in the next election, who owes them favors and who they can give a cheap favor and probably pad the vote by one or two because Congresspeople are not real trustworthy. One of Pelosi’s reasons for success is that she was very good at counting out votes, figuring how many votes she could expect from Republicans that wouldn’t tell her directly and such.
What annoys me is that they did this but Schumer still said he is opposed to the compromise. So either the party went behind his back and he has lost control as leader or his is lying. Either way looks bad for him.
The lack of accountability will continue.
Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and others involved in bid to overturn 2020 election
Tell me again how they’re not performative opposition.
People should stop saying the Dems are weak or stupid, because they’re not: they’re corrupt.
Big difference.
They think we’re stupid and will continue to vote for them despite this massive betrayal, which has already caused immense harm to innumerable federal employees and those who depend on federal services, and will literally kill tens of thousands due to massive increases in ACA rates that will render insurance unaffordable for many.
Every Dem who caved is a multimillionaire – most many times over – who got full pay while not working, and has better health care, probably, than anyone reading this.
None who caved is running for reelection in 2026 – meaning every incumbent is safe from the consequences of this betrayal – which was orchestrated, btw, at the top. (Durbin, the whip, was a caver).
The Dems were at their strongest after last week’s election, and Trump was weakest, with poll #s in the toilet. They squandered all their momentum less than a week after a progressive rout, because they’d rather lose than offend their corporate owners.
Please stop voting for centrist / corporatist Dems. Please stop voting Blue No Matter Who. We’ve done it for decades, and look where it’s brought us.
This is already happening.
No matter how bad you think health care is today, it will be worse in the future.
.1. Both the local mega-clinic and the regional medical center are in trouble, losing money. The mega-clinic was bought out by private equity and that didn’t solve anything. A lot of their key specialists including almost all their neurologists quit and went elsewhere.
.2. About ten years ago, the oncologists starting seeing a lot of patients coming in with advanced, hard to treat cancers.
The patients couldn’t afford medical care so they were waiting until they had to come in for checkups and diagnosis.
The more the cancer has spread, the harder it is to treat and the shorter their life spans.
I’ve seen this twice this summer alone in people I know well.
One guy was diagnosed with late stage 4 gastric cancer. Two weeks later he was dead.
About the same time, another person diagnosed with…a late stage 4 aggressive and widespread form of cancer. Dead a few weeks later by assisted suicide.
A lot of people are just going to stop buying health insurance because they can’t afford it. They will then put off a lot of medical care because…they don’t have insurance and can’t afford it.
Most of the time this works.
Some of the time it fails catastrophically.
We’ve been having falling lifespans in the USA for a long time now. It will probably keep on going down.
A lot more than just them need to go. It’s so fucking obvious that leadership wanted to cave and were more upset about their own flight inconveniences than anyone on food stamps and so votes were shuttled to ones that aren’t up for re-election next year. They had widespread support and people were actually excited for them for once only to just throw everything in the toilet as usual. What the fuck is even the point of this party if they’re not coherent in standing up to this blatantly corrupt and fascistic administration?
If Chuck Shumer is lying, he needs to go.
If Chuck Shumer is sincere but inefficient, he needs to go.
There is one complex strategic game the Democrats could be playing. They passed this in the Senate to put pressure on the Republicans to open the House even though this won’t pass in the House. That would require some good coordination between the Senate and House Democratic leadership. That seems really unlikely but is remotely possible.
My email to my Representative and Senators:
“Why should I vote for any Democrat if the party folds when it is looking like they just might win? Why should we ever believe you when you claim to be working for our benefit? Over and over and over again the party sells the people out. Stand up for affordable healthcare, affordable education, human rights, and so on. Show a spine! 2026 and 2028 were looking like there might be some change – and then you people go and fold, kowtowing to the orange monster. If you keep backing down and whimpering like this there is no way that the Democrats will win in 2026 or 2028 because no one will trust you to do what you said you would do. (Also, you should be posting the bills you will champion once you have some power in Congress again….but instead of detailed planning that demonstrates you have actually been thinking about how to get us out of this mess we are getting meaningless platitudes about “building a resistance” alternated with whimpering like a beaten dog. We need politicians who will fight fascism, not ‘compromise’ with the fascists!)”
Schumer sure do talk real purdy. But you can be sure it is nothing, but talk. He gave them their head to do the cave and either he is behind it or he completely incompetent. None of these people are up for re-election in 2026. This was orcastrated from the top.
These eight cockroaches are expending all their energy pushing this nation down the DEATH SPIRAL as fast as they can. I have found no power on earth that will stop this endless disaster.