they simply do not care if we the people have access to health care, any more than they care about anything else that actually HELPS people

I can't believe it!
The cave on the shutdown looks like such a great plan now!

😑

Or five or more in the Senate

After that cave, I'm having a hard time controlling my bitterness

I haven't seen a convincing argument that explains that path. Sometimes just because one approach isn't working doesn't mean that doing the opposite will work.

Thune would have been in Schumers office begging for a way out that DIDNT involve trumps demand to blow up the fillibuster to do it without dem votes.

Schumer could have traded a guaranteed extension of the subsidies in exchange for air traffic not walking off the job for the holidays.

HYPOTHETICALLY.

The vote only occurred because of the cave in.

The Dems were winning the fight in all legitimate polls....bigly.

A DEAL to open the government would've negated the NEED for a vote or at least a contested vote.

Anyone not blindly naive KNEW the GOPers weren't going to vote for it on their own.

JFC!

The person above you acknowledged that a longer shutdown might have hypothetically gotten it. But can you provide an example of a minority party getting a concession that big from the majority party as a result of a government shutdown? It's really easy to say that something might have happened, but that doesn't make it so.

I answered your question. It does show how we get past that point. Read it again.

My point has been illustrated with many examples from past shutdown deals. Look back at past shutdowns. Deals were made where both parties would vote for certain things. Concessions were made for votes. No point in enumerating each shutdown deal for you.

What happens

And access to healthcare.

Thanks to everyone who supported that, including DUers. People are going to die because of this but phew! people got to get on their plane without a delay. So relieved 🤬

It was basically outright gaslighting.

Right? It’s a good thing the Democrats gave up all their leverage on the promise of this vote that anyone with sense knew was going to fail.

I guess you can say the Republicans held up their end of the bargain. They did have the vote.

Disgusting.

US Senate

Senator Richard Durbin (Illinois, retiring)
Senator Angus King (Maine, term ends in 2030)
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (Nevada, term ends in 2028)
Senator Jacky Rosen (Nevada, term ends in 2030)
Senator Maggie Hassan (New Hampshire, term ends in 2028)
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire, retiring)
Senator John Fetterman (Pennsylvania, term ends in 2028)
Senator Tim Kaine (Virginia, term ends in 2030)



The 6 US House Dems who voted Yes

Henry Cuellar of Texas
Jared Golden of Maine
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington
Adam Gray of California
Don Davis of North Carolina
Tom Suozzi of New York

switch Adam Gray out for Josh Gottheimer and you have my list of the 6 worst Dems atm in the House

all 6 have truly problematic track records on multiple issues, far beyond this one vote

The only difference is, people on SNAP might still be starving and federal workers might still be living without paychecks. Or the GOP might have used it as an opportunity to ditch the filibuster and... we'd still be exactly here.

Anyone who ever thought the GOP was ever going to relent on those subsidies was kidding themselves, certainly not enough of them to break a Trump veto, even if it survived cloture. The notion that Democrats had any real leverage here is a laughable myth that is completely out of line with basic arithmetic.

People like to see "Democrats fight", but there is only so mileage you can get out that before you're just screwing people over more. And the vast majority of the elected GOP in Congress do not give 2 shits about shooting hostages.

America got what it voted for. Hopefully it does better next time.

They had promises from Thune11!!1

It doesn't matter if Dem leadership knew what it was doing or not though. Guess what? We lost everything in 2024 and elections have consequences. Sometimes, those of us that voted the correct way still have to admit that we have to suffer those consequences because we share a country with a lot of terrible people who actually want cruel things to happen to vulnerable people.

Then I must ask:

At what date was the GOP gonna give in and reopen the government with the ACA subsidies fully funded? How many of them were gonna give in? Was it gonna be a veto proof majority?

OR, maybe you think the shutdown would still be going on right now? At what point would people on SNAP and millions of others who rely on an open government to get paid or even basically function gonna start pointing the finger at Democrats?

I ask people questions like this all the time... the theme is always the same though.... when, where and how were the GOP, with all 3 branches of government firmly in their power, with both houses and the White House... going to stop being assholes and do the right thing for the people? (the answer is probably never, in my opinion... I think many of them enjoy seeing people suffer)

in terms of blame as the shutdown went on.

The vast majority of elected Dems at multiple levels (and from a wide range of ideological backgrounds) opposed the cave in. It ceertainly was not a centrist/moderate v progressive delineated battle.

Other than the 8 cavers and then Spanberger, almost every major Dem centrist/moderate voted No and/or has ripped the deal, as have, of course, the further left in our Party.

This includes most every 2026 Senate candidate (centrist/moderates included) who are not in the current Senate.

There is no deep and wide divide within our Party over the cave-in. The Party is mostly united in its disapproval of the cave-in from what I have seen, at least as far as all the other Senators, the Dem Governors (especially Newsom and Pritzker), most major US Senate 2026 candidates, and most US House members, including Jeffries.

A sampling of those who have condemened the cave-in and/or voted No, starting with moderates/centrists:

Roy Cooper, the odds-on favourite to win the 2026 NC Senate race, condemened the deal.

Janet Mills, the current favourite for US Senate from Maine, panned the deal.

NJ Governor-elect (and another US House Problem Solver) Mikie Sherrill denounced the deal as “malpractice.”

Haley Stevens (a Problem Solver like Slotkin was) who is the current leader in the 2026 MI US Senate race, has ripped the deal.

Slotkin and Gary Peters, the current MI US Senators both voted No and Slotkin criticised the deal.

Mark Warner, also from VA like the caver Kaine, voted No. All 6 of the US Senators except for Kaine, from the 3 biggest US States in terms of government employees (CA, VA, and MD) voted No. Both governors from MD and CA (Newsom and Wes Moore) were against the deal, unlike Spanberger.

Colin Allred of TX, running again for US Senate, called the deal a 'joke'.

Moderates Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of AZ voted No. Gallego criticised the deal on X, Kelly on MSNBC today.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (granted not a centrist), running for the MN US Senate slot, said in a video, “we deserve so much more than this bullshit”

“If people believe this is a ‘deal,’ I have a bridge to sell you,” said Flanagan’s rival, Representative Angie Craig (another House Problem Solver) adding that she’s a “no” when the measure comes up for a vote in the House. “I’m not going to put 24 million Americans at risk of losing their health care.”

Hickenlooper of CO voted No, and criticised the deal as did his fellow CO moderate Senator, Michael Bennet.

Jon Ossoff, perhaps the Dem Senator most at risk in 2026, voted No, as did his fellow GA US Senator Raphael Warnock, and criticised the deal.

The moderate Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) voted No.

The moderate (and also an ex House Problem Solver) Peter Welch (VT) voted No.

Moderate Amy Klobuchar of MN voted No.

As for non-centrists, here are some samples:

The Democrats vying to replace caver Durbin in IL: Juliana Stratton (Pritzker's pick), who’s previously called for new Senate leadership, cast Democrats’ cave as “a complete betrayal of the American people.” Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Robin Kelly both slammed the deal.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico, running for the US Senate rebuked the deal, saying 'it isn't compromise; it's surrender'.

In Ohio, former Senator Sherrod Brown (running again for the Senate) said “This is a bad deal for Ohioans.”

“That’s not a deal,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (NY) said, “It’s an unconditional surrender.”

Nathan Sage, running for US Senate in Iowa, slammed the Senate Democrats who “caved and accomplished nothing.”

Sara Rodriguez, candidate for Wisconsin Governor said: “Tonight’s vote may have ended the shutdown — but it sent Wisconsin families the bill. Senate Democrats had a choice: stand firm for working people or cave to political pressure. They chose wrong.”

Haley Stevens' 2 main opponents for the US Senate in MI in 2026: “This is a bad deal,” Mallory McMorrow said in a video, adding that “the old way of doing things is not working.” Abdul El-Sayed slammed the “shit” agreement and said the eight Senate Democrats gave up the Party'd leverage “when we actually can force Republicans to the table”.

Sen. Chris Murphy (CT) said there was "no way to defend" the yes vote. “My fear is that Trump gets stronger, not weaker, because of this acquiescence”.

Tim Walz also slammed the deal.

Senator Tammy Baldwin, WI US Senator said: “A wink and a nod to deal with this health care crisis later – with no actual guarantees – is just not enough for me or the Wisconsin families I work for. I refuse to sign off on a deal that doesn’t lower working families’ health care costs.”

I know who voted yes, who voted no, who is up for re-election, who isn't, etc.

I understand that anger. I empathize with it.

I just don't believe that the GOP was ever going to relent. I think we've seen like maybe, one time, where the GOP was in a similar position to kill the ACA and totally would have had John McCain not had his moment of clarity, realizing that they were not offering any viable replacement (and he probably wanted to give Trump an L out of spite too).

The cruelty is the point with these people. I fully believe they would've said to hell with all the people who were being harmed or about to be harmed by the shut down and let those people go down in flames without a care in the world. That is who they are at this point in history. And I also believe they would've eventually managed to turn public opinion against the Democrats. We always seem to have the deck stacked against us when it comes to stuff like that. The media and WAY too many voters are perfectly fine with accepting that Republicans are childish assholes and that Democrats have to always be the adults in the room.

"Its okay if you are a Republican" is a real thing.

Until someone can provide a realistic argument that supports the notion that there was some other path that would've came to fruition, then I also understand why those Dems backed off. They wanted to stop what bleeding they could.

We give the American voters too much credit. Most of us (Americans) are willfully uninformed people with short attention spans and short term memories. And those are the kinds of voters that handed the GOP everything in 2024. Elections have consequences... its a tired cliche' but its also true.

But we need to always say “The Republicans in the Senate blocked the ACA subsidy extension.”

You have to hit people over the head with the truth.

It’s gives democrats a great issue to run on for the midterms.

Not too late to delete

But if democrats win back congress next year, they may be able to restore the subsidies. Isn’t that a good thing?

What is your point?

We had reasons due to reconciliation requirements and negotiations with Manchin and the priorities set by the Biden administration. Republicans did the same with Trump's tax cuts from the first Trump term. But they won in 2024 and so they could extend the tax cuts. We lost, so we couldn't extend the subsidies.

It's obviously harder to get what you want in the minority. If we had made the extended subsidies a higher priority, we could have kept them longer.

Likewise we could have made the expiration a priority in the 2024 election and didn't. Those were both periods we as a party had more agency than during the shutdown.

And that’s why it’s important to win the midterms next year so the subsidies can be restored.

And you if you do, die quickly and quietly.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Those Democrats running for the US Senate, have been given a GIFT with the record of their vote to NOT extend the ACA subsidies. Democrats will pounce like a ton of bricks on soft cheese.

Go for it, Democrats!

Will die with no health insurance between next month and January 2027 plus months of arguing to get anything passed, majority or not. Then trump veto will show up. That is all IF nukes are not flying before. Feeling giddy about 2027 house takeover and insurance on the way rings real fucking hollow.
I for one do not want to hear a single fucking Happy New Year or see the damn ball drop. Yet trump and his fellow billionaires and his spawn will be partying like hell, with great health care, and cash flooding into their tax free accounts. That’s some serious God blessing Murkkka there. America is too stupid to survive. Darwin told us the outcome of such a weak species.
Others think God will rapture them to safety with streets of gold and mansions.
Can we convince trump to end himself to go get virgins and his streets of gold. Both his weakness.

current situation. I will also be losing health insurance and even though I don't have any serious medical conditions I do feel like I'm now playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette by not having it. I get upset when anybody on DU says the Republicans blocking an extension for the subsidies is a gift for Democrats to use in Midterms and the Presidential election. How can this be a gift when it will be a death sentence for a lot of people along with also bankrupting a lot of people.

It's a plain fact tjere will be people who will die bc of this. And they (Repugs) whine about the ACA costing too much.